The baseball team exploded for 11 runs in the seventh inning of its game against Mass Maritime yesterday, drowning the Buccaneers 14-1 on Huskins Field. With the win, the Jumbos improve to 5-10 and have now taken three of their last four contests, with the exception being a loss to Bates in game two of Saturday's doubleheader.
"We're just trying to play well," coach John Casey said. "I think we've been inconsistent from day one, and we're just trying to figure out a way to play well. That's it. I don't know if there was a lot more significance than that; we're just trying to get ourselves going the right way."
"You know this game was nice, especially with the huge weekend coming up against Trinity," junior co-captain and catcher Alex Perry said. "It was nice to build some momentum. It meant a lot to us, just to get back on track after the tough loss to Bates in the second game of the doubleheader."
The game started off in relatively mundane fashion, as there was only one hit through the first two and a half innings. That's when Perry hit a solo home run in the bottom of the third to put the Jumbos on top 1-0.
"I got a good swing on the ball," Perry said. "I think the best approach right now is see ball, hit ball. It happened to be a good hitting count, it felt good off the bat. I didn't know if it would be a home run or not, but I knew I got a good piece of it."
The Buccaneers answered right back in the top of the fourth. A one-out double by senior outfielder Tyler Spofford came back to hurt Tufts, as a wild pitch moved the runner over to third and a groundout allowed him to score.
The Jumbos would take the lead again in the bottom of the fifth when junior outfielder Anthony Fucillo stole home on a double steal and senior outfielder Dave Katzman hit an RBI double, giving Tufts a two-run advantage.
The score would remain the same until the seventh, when the Jumbos sent 15 batters to the plate -- 11 with one or no outs -- and used four hits, three walks, three hit batsmen and three Maritime errors to score 11 runs. The rally started when Bucs sophomore third baseman Michael Vargas made two throwing errors to begin the inning, followed by Perry hitting an RBI double. Katzman, who would walk and score later in the inning, then followed with a two-RBI single, giving the Jumbos a healthy five-run lead before they had even done most of their damage.
From that point on the game was over, and it seemed like the Buccaneers knew it. They failed not only to reach base in the final two innings but even to get a ball out of the infield. On the day, the team hit just .143, and even if each of the six Bucs runners left on base had scored, the game would not have been close.
The Tufts offense, on the other hand, had nine hits, six walks and three hit batsmen, plating 14 runs, while eight Jumbo pitchers combined to allow just four hits and one run.
"All four games up here, I think we've pitched, honestly, well enough to win every game," Casey said. "I don't think we played great defense the third game against Bates, [but] I think we've made plays when we had to. Today, we turned a couple double plays when the thing was close. I think our pitching staff is doing fine for what it is and what we expected of it; I think they did a great job today. I have no problems with them. We just have to hit the ball and hit it consistently. We can't wait for people to give us things. That's where we are right now."
The Jumbos will now look to a three-game series with Trinity this weekend, which went undefeated in the regular season and won the national championship last year. Last year, Tufts had a chance to take its first game with the Bantams, down just 5-3 after seven innings, but the Jumbos eventually went on to lose the game 7-3.
"It doesn't matter who we play, it matters how we play, and that's all I'm worried about right now," Casey said. "Whether it's Trinity or anyone else, we just have to play the best we can play and then we'll see what the heck happens. It doesn't matter who we're playing; we're capable of beating anyone in this league if we play the way we can, but we need everybody playing well to do it.
"Right now, we're not doing that -- you can see that by the averages and the stats and everything -- but on the other hand, we come out here, turn two in big situations and get out of jams," Casey continued. "[Senior infielder] Ari David made a nice play down the line; Perry now has a couple big hits. They're all capable of doing it. We just have to relax and play. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves sometimes."
