Sam Sager, Baseball
On Saturday night, the New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals played a 20-inning game that nearly took seven hours. The following day, in the first slate of a two-game home series with two-time NESCAC champion Trinity, the Jumbos were locked into a 4-4 tie in a contest that was supposed to last only seven innings. Sophomore Sam Sager made sure it wouldn't go farther than 10.
With no one on and none out in the bottom of the 10th inning, the third baseman stepped to the plate and launched an offering from sophomore Edward Donovon, Sager's second of the season, to give Tufts a 5-4 win, delivering the momentum needed for the Jumbos to sweep the Bantams and take over sole possession of first place in the NESCAC East.
Sager, second on the team in RBIs, is in the No. 5 hole in both weekend games, a departure from his usual slot at No. 3 in the lineup. Still, it did not affect his offensive production, as he went 3-for-7 in the two games with three runs and three RBIs. In the first frame in the second game, Sager smacked a two-run double, giving the Jumbos a lead they would not relinquish in their 10-4 victory.
Over the two-game get, Sager batted .429 with a .556 on-base percentage and a 1.143 slugging mark and was named the NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts. In Monday in the squad's doubleheader at home versus UMass Dartmouth, Sager followed up his performance with a 4-for-7 day.
Lindsay Katz and Janice LAm, Women's Tennis
In the women's tennis squad's biggest match of the spring season thus far, it was the freshman duo of Lindsay Katz and Janice Lam who stepped up the most.
After rain moved the match indoors to Gantcher Center on Saturday, the No. 17 Jumbos were faced with the task of hosting No. 2 Williams, the defending national champions. Katz and Lam, playing together at the No. 2 doubles slot, garnered a huge win over the No. 11 doubles team in the Northeast of Ephs sophomore Kristin Alotta and junior Nikki Reich.
With both the Jumbos' No. 1 and No. 3 doubles already defeated, it was up to Lam and Katz to give Tufts at least one win heading into singles play. After both Lam and Alotta held serve, the set was pushed into a tiebreaker with the score tied at eight.
In the tiebreaker, Tufts roared back from a 4-1 deficit, taking a 5-4 lead after Alotta sailed a forehand long. Lam then neatly placed a winner at the net to push it to 6-5, after which Katz smashed an ace down the middle of the court to give the Jumbos the victory.
Though both Katz and Lam lost in their respective singles matches, it was their exciting win over the second-best No. 2 doubles team in the region that was the highlight of the afternoon.
One day prior, the duo steamrolled its Wellesley opponents, 8-0, after which both Katz and Lam won their singles matches in straight sets. On the year, Katz and Lam have lost just three matches, none of which have come after the squad's spring break trip to Florida in March.
