The baseball team dropped its second straight game on Monday, a 15-5 loss at Bentley. Unlike the 2-1 defeat to the hands of Wesleyan on Sunday, there was nothing sudden, nor dramatic to the end of the Bentley game. Bentley score seven runs in the first three innings, and cruised to the 10-run victory.
The 15 runs allowed were a bit misleading, however, as only four were earned. Bentley took advantage of six Tufts errors, which led to 11 unearned runs.
"It was an uncharacteristic day for us defensively," junior pitcher Dave Martin said. "If you give a team more than three outs in an inning, they will hurt you."
Aside from the poor defense, Martin also cited a tired pitching staff as partially to blame for the loss.
"We were a little down on pitching," Martin said. "The kid that pitched [freshman Jeff Volinski] is a good pitcher, but he's probably our fifth starter."
"You can't really expect to win games when you make six errors and don't hit the ball very well," junior center fielder Evan Zupancic said. "Hopefully that will be a big wakeup call."
Volinksi got the start, the second of his collegiate career, as the top four starters were all used in the back-to-back double-headers the team played over the weekend.
Despite the loss being the team's second straight, there is no panic in the Jumbos' locker room.
"It was just an uncharacteristic game," Martin said. "We'll just have to work harder this week in practice."
Zupancic said the team was not on its mental game. "A lot of us weren't in it and it wasn't just defensively," he said. "We couldn't pitch the ball well or hit the ball well. It just wasn't a really good, solid team effort."
There were some bright spots in the game offensively, as juniors Jon Herbert and Brian Shapiro, and sophomores Adam Kacamburas and Greg Hickey all had two-hit games. Shapiro hit a homerun in the first inning, his fifth on the year.
Fortunately for the Jumbos, the game was a non-conference contest, so it won't hurt Tufts' position in the standings. Bentley is out of the NESCAC, so the only impact the loss has is to drop Tufts' overall record to 12-5-1 on the season.
Inside the NESCAC, the Jumbos are still in first place in the East Division, as they won both weekend games over division rival Bates. The doubleheader split with Wesleyan, a NESCAC team, do not affect the Jumbos in conference standings because Wesleyan is in the West Division.
Tufts will play three division games this weekend, as it squares off against Bowdoin once on Friday and twice on Saturday. The Polar Bears are in last place in the East at 1-5, so if the Jumbos can get back on track, they should be able to maintain their division lead.
For that to happen, though, Tufts must move past Monday's defensive debacle, something it seems already to have done.
"We have three games up there," Zupancic said. "They are going to be tough. Every league game counts. We just have to come out ready to play, otherwise some like what happened with Bentley will happen again. And nobody likes that."
