Tufts baseball defends its title on southern road trip

Tufts baseball returns home after posting an impressive 7–2 record during its weeklong trip to Virginia, putting its overall record at 8–2 to start off the season.

Tufts concluded its road trip against Randolph-Macon, securing a 7–3 win. The victory against Randolph-Macon, currently the No. 9 ranked team in Div. Ⅲ baseball, signals that the Jumbos are poised for a strong season.

“Overall, it was a pretty good week," sophomore pitcher Manny Ray said. "I think we really battled. We have just got to keep working hard, and playing clean baseball is our focus. Finishing off with a win against Randolph-Macon was really big; it showed that we definitely have the ability.”

The Jumbos started the scoring with two runs in the top of the second on a two-run triple from junior outfielder Justin Mills. First-year infielder Peter DeMaria homered in the top of the fifth to put the Jumbos up 3–1. The Jumbos got three additional insurance runs on an RBI double from sophomore infielder Ryan Daues and an RBI single from DeMaria in the top of the seventh inning to increase the lead to 6–3. An unearned run in the top of the ninth gave the Jumbos an additional run that consolidated the win.

On Friday, Tufts lost the eighth game of their road trip in a hard-fought 5–4 game against the University of Lynchburg.

The day before, the Jumbos' pitching crew stepped up as they won a close game 3–0 against Roanoke. Junior pitcher Brent Greeley had a near-perfect start, throwing six scoreless innings allowing only two hits. First-year pitcher Lucas Gustavson threw a scoreless seventh inning and Spencer Langdon threw two scoreless innings to record his second save of the season. The offense was powered by senior outfielder Casey Santos-Ocampo, who had two RBIs, and sophomore infielder Kyle Cortese, who had two hits and an RBI.

On March 19, Tufts' offense and pitching came alive with an impressive 17–2 win against Averett University. Mills had a big day, recording four hits from the leadoff spot. Sophomore infielder Will Burgess drove in three runs, and senior co-captain and catcher Harrison Frickman contributed three hits along with three RBIs. Tufts also got stellar pitching once again from senior co-captain R.J. Hall, who pitched six innings giving up only one earned run. Gustavson, sophomore pitcher Andrew Wood and sophomore pitcher Jamie Weiss each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

“Going into your first start, there is always going to be a little rust to get off," Hall said. "It was really about setting the tone on the mound and just being aggressive right off the bat."

The day before, Tufts picked up a 6–4 win against the Guilford College Quakers. Once again, Tufts opened up the game with three runs in the first inning, while scoring once in the sixth and twice in the seventh to hold off a potential comeback from the Quakers. The Jumbos got RBIs from junior outfielder/catcher Ryan Day, sophomore infielder Ryan Daues, senior catcher Eric Schnepf, and first-year infielder Nate Bozella. First-year Aidan Tucker earned the win, pitching five innings while only allowing two earned runs on four hits. Another first-year pitcher, Steven Landry, came in and pitched three innings in relief, giving up just one unearned run on four hits. First-year closer Michael Volgende,  pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his first save of the year.

The day before, the Jumbos beat St. Vincent College 8–4. The offense started off strong, scoring three runs in the first inning on RBIs from sophomore infielder Ryan Daues, junior outfielder J.P. Knight and junior infielder Elias Varinos. The Jumbos never looked back as they relied on a strong start from Ray along with solid relief outings from Wood and Langdon.

“It really helped coming into the game with a three-run lead. It was a weight off of my shoulders,"  Ray said.

Tufts played one game March 16 as well, losing a close game 8–7 against Stevens Institute in Hampton, Va.

The Jumbos started out the spring break road trip red-hot with dominating wins over Castleton, 17–2, and against Apprentice School, 14–3, also in Hampton, Va. In the second game of the day, DeMaria contributed with four RBIs while junior pitcher Brent Greeley had an impressive outing, throwing seven scoreless innings and only giving up two hits. In the first game of the spring break trip and its second game of the season, Tufts’ offense exploded for 17 hits as well as home runs from Santos-Ocampo and sophomore outfielder Brandon Bay. The team also got strong pitching from Hall and Tucker.

“We have that attack mentality in the beginning innings to score first," Burgess said. "We want to get out in front because playing ahead is a lot better than playing from behind. When we jump out to those leads, it fuels our offense to keep going.”

Hall knows what this team is capable of.

"We have every right to be a top-25 team in the nation," Hall said. "If we focus game by game, and play the way that we are supposed to, we have a genuine shot at making it to the College World Series this year."

Tufts relied heavily on scoring first to maintain the tempo of each game: they scored first in every single game in Virginia, with a .329 batting average and a .492 slugging percentage to boot across the season's entirety. After a long seven-game away trip, the Jumbos return home to Medford for their next 15 games. Tufts begins its current undefeated home record defense this afternoon against Massachusetts Maritime Academy at 3 p.m. on Huskins Field.