Having won 14 of its last 15 games against the MIT Engineers, the men's baseball team entered yesterday's contest with some well-earned confidence. After only two Tufts at bats in the bottom of the first, the winning run scored and the Jumbos sailed to an 11-1 victory, improving to 8-7-1 on the season.
Going for nine strong innings, freshman Randy Newsom held the Engineers (3-10) to five hits and racked up his first collegiate win. After pitching its fifth game in three days, Tufts' bullpen let out a collective sigh of relief as Newsom mowed down batter after batter, never letting the MIT offense get started.
"We needed someone to go the distance," coach John Casey said. "Newsom did what we asked him and pitched really well. He did a good job keeping the ball down, and Joe [Surprenant] did a nice job calling the game from behind the plate."
The Jumbo offense started the game off with a bang, as every batter stepped to the plate in the first inning and MIT committed a comedy of errors in the field to help Tufts' cause. Engineer starting pitcher Austin Morris walked sophomore Evan Zupancic to lead off the game. The next batter, sophomore John Herbert, belted a drive to deep center, which was dropped, allowing Zupancic to score easily. An errant throw to third base gave Herbert a free ride home, putting the Jumbos up 2-0.
Junior Dan Callahan and sophomore Brian Shapiro each walked, setting up junior Tim Ayres' RBI situation. Although suffering a mild slump in the first half of the season, Ayres showed no sign of rust as he belted a towering three-run home run over the right-center field wall.
After a 1-2-3 inning in the field, Tufts' offense went back to work, with Zupancic once again leading off the inning. The center-fielder went deep on a double and advanced to third base on a throwing error. Two batters later, Callahan hit a deep fly, allowing the speedy Zupancic to score on the sacrifice.
The pace of the game then sped up, as both sides went down quietly until the fifth inning. In the bottom of the fifth, Ayres recorded his fourth RBI of the day on a single, which scored sophomore Brian Shapiro.
In the following inning, the Engineers posed their only real threat, with a double by Robert Weiker setting up an RBI single for Alvie Loreto. But Newsom got out of the jam, relinquishing only one run.
In the bottom of the inning, the bat of Tim Ayres put the game out of reach. Ayres nearly duplicated his first inning performance, with a deep two-run double to center field, scoring Shapiro and sophomore Josh Markey. Batting only .216 coming into the game, the first basemen Ayres knocked in six runs on the day. Ayres, who moved to third on a fielder's choice, scored on a pass ball later in the inning.
"He's been struggling a little this season, and he's really a much better hitter than his numbers will show," Casey said. "We moved him down in the lineup to take a little pressure off, and he had a great game."
Even with the 10-1 lead, Newsom continued to dominate the Engineer bats, as each inning seemed quicker than the last. He ended the day with six strikeouts and no walks. Callahan added another insurance run in the eighth, with an RBI single that scored Zupancic.
"I thought we played a solid game," Casey said. "We made all the plays we needed to. Randy pitched well and the defense made some great plays behind him."
The non-conference win pushes the Jumbos record to 8-7-1. The team gets a much-needed rest until three NESCAC East games against Trinity this weekend.
