One measure of a baseball team's strength is its ability to bounce back from adversity. Tufts (20-5-1 overall, 9-0 NESCAC East) was stunned by Brandeis in an 11-3 loss back on April 20, snapping a 14-game winning streak. But the Jumbos have now rebounded with three wins in a row.
Tuesday's matchup against Wesleyan was the first taste Tufts has had this year of NESCAC West competition. The Cardinals (15-15 overall, 5-4 NESCAC West) are currently third in their division, but they still have an outside chance of sneaking into the postseason tournament. Hence, the Jumbos certainly wanted to make a strong impression.
Seniors Derek Miller and Pat O'Donnell — who pitched the first six innings of the game for Tufts — did just that. Miller worked two frames and then O'Donnell picked up the next four as the duo shut out the Cardinals on just three hits and no walks while striking out seven. O'Donnell was credited with the win and is now 3-0 on the season.
"Wesleyan is an aggressive hitting team, so I was trying to get ahead of hitters and then keep them off-balance with my offspeed stuff," O'Donnell said. "If you fall behind into fastball counts, they can really hurt you, but fortunately that didn't happen too often."
The seniors' strong work enabled the Jumbos offense to build an early lead against the Cardinals' starter, freshman Chase Levi, who took the loss and fell to 1-2. Tufts plated two runs in the first and added another pair on the second, giving the pitching staff all the support it needed on a blustery afternoon at Huskins Field.
Senior centerfielder David Orlowitz collected two singles in the early going, driving in a run with each of them. Senior co-captain shortstop David LeResche helped both of the rallies along with singles of his own, and Wesleyan's defense — which botched two cutoff plays and committed a throwing error on senior outfielder Chase Rose's infield single — did the rest.
Still, given all the base runners they earned, the Jumbos were disappointed in their inability to put the Cardinals in a bigger hole.
"We were able to put the pressure on them early by scoring runs in the first few innings," junior Matt Collins, who raised his batting average to .330 with a 2-for-4 day, said. "It's always nice to take an early lead, but we also missed several opportunities to score more in those early innings by leaving guys on base."
The Jumbos stranded 10 of their 15 base runners on Tuesday and will need to improve on that ratio to extend their new three-game winning streak. They managed to push across an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning, when junior co-captain third baseman Sam Sager singled, stole second, advanced to third on a deep flyout by Rose and scored on an infield single by Collins.
Freshmen Christian Sbily and Dean Lambert took over on the mound for the seventh and eighth, respectively. Both pitched well, though the Cardinals were able to break the shutout with an unearned run off Sbily. Senior Ed Bernstein pitched a scoreless ninth, with coach John Casey looking to keep his closer's arm fresh even though it was not a save situation.
The pitching staff benefited from a stellar performance by the team's outfielders, who battled the wind to make numerous impressive catches on the run. Orlowitz showed off his range in centerfield throughout the game, while senior leftfielder Ian Goldberg stole the show in the eighth. Goldberg sprinted deep into the leftfield corner to steal what would've been a double away from Wesleyan junior Noah Feingold.
"As a pitcher, it's always a great feeling knowing you can attack the strike zone, because the guys behind you are going to take away one or two balls that should be hits every time," O'Donnell said.
The game ended on a foul pop-up near the home bleachers by Wesleyan senior rightfielder Justin Freres. The ball swirled in a gust and gave Collins plenty of grief, but the Hopkinton, Mass., native came down with it in the Tufts on-deck circle to secure the 5-1 win.
"I was just glad to have made the play and gotten the last out of the game," Collins said. "The last thing I wanted to do was to give a Wesleyan hitter another swing, so although it wasn't very pretty, I was happy to have ended the game."
The Jumbos will next be in action this weekend, hosting the Bowdoin Polar Bears in a battle for the NESCAC East division title. First pitch on Friday will be at 3 p.m., and a doubleheader is scheduled to begin Saturday at noon on Huskins Field.
