In yesterday's final two home NESCAC games of the season, Tufts swept Amherst 5-0, 4-1, remaining the only undefeated team in the conference. Amherst came in boasting a perfect 6-0 NESCAC record and had won seven of its last nine, but the Lord Jeffs' bats went silent against the dominant senior hurler Jodie Moreau and emerging freshman Caroline Grieco. In fact, Amherst did not hit a fly ball until the third inning of the second game.
Entering the contest, both teams were undefeated in conference play, and the top two pitchers in the league squared off on the mound during game one. Senior co-captain Lauren Peloquin was 13-5 with a 1.24 ERA for Amherst, but the Tufts bats had no trouble getting to work against her. In the top of the first, senior Jen Mackey skied a double to left field and sophomore Julie Fox drove her home two batters later for the first run.
"Lauren Peloquin is a great pitcher but if any team can hit her it will be us," coach Kris Talon said. "We came out and scored a run in the first. Jen Mackey has been hitting her for four years."
Interestingly, Mackey and Peloquin have been rivals since high school, and according to Mackey's mother, "Jen has always creamed her."
On the mound, Moreau was yet again impressive in the complete game, two-hit shutout, where she struck out ten and only let three Jeffs into scoring position. With the victory, she picked up her NESCAC-best 15th win of the season.
Tufts slowly added to the lead, picking up a run in the third, as sophomore Deana Davidian scored on a Mackey RBI. In the fourth, Moreau had a RBI double and then scored a run on a Davidian single. Senior Tiffany Trahan scored the final run of the game in the sixth off of a double by Fox.
In the second game, Grieco took the mound against junior Emily Melia, and came out very strong, retiring the first ten batters in order. Meanwhile, Tufts' typically slugging offense put together two runs in the second using small ball, with five consecutive bunts.
Trahan led off with a single and Moreau attempted the sacrifice bunt, but reached on an error. Davidian moved both runners along with a successful sacrifice bunt. Sophomore Maggie McClory and junior Nikki Blottner then both converted squeeze bunts, and senior co-captain Emily Ferrazza attempted another squeeze play, but McClory was called out at the plate.
"We had a good opportunity to squeeze twice, and we had a pretty good handle on the game at that point," Talon said. We had a fairly fast kid on third (McClory) and we were just kind of testing them defensively."
Amherst had its best scoring opportunity in the fourth as the team loaded the bases with only one out. Following Tufts' lead, Melia attempted the squeeze play but Trahan threw the runner out at home. The next batter grounded out, and Grieco was out of the jam.
The Jumbos increased their lead to 4-0 by the bottom of the fourth, and they cruised on until the top of the seventh. Amherst led off the inning with two consecutive singles before the third batter of the inning grounded to second. On the double play attempt, Mackey's throw to first went past Trahan and the unearned run came around to score. The next batter hit a high fly ball to McClory in left field, and she was able to double up the runner on second to end the game.
The team leaders included Fox, who was 2-4 with three RBI, and Mackey (current NESCAC Player of the Week), who went 3-7 with a RBI and a run scored. But clearly the victories belong to the two pitchers who both pitched complete games.
"One unearned run in two games. You can't really ask for much more than that from the pitching or defense," Talon said.
On paper, Amherst was the other team to beat in the conference, but Tufts made it pretty clear that they were the only team in the upper echelon.
"We try not to think who is on the other side of the field and go out and play our game," Davidian said. "We play solid defense and hit the ball well and let the rest fall into place."
This afternoon the team will play its final home game of the season at 4:30 p.m. against non-conference Babson. Originally, yesterday's contest was scheduled to be final game and there was a small ceremony for the four seniors at the conclusion of the doubleheader. Although today's game has no bearing on conference standings, it could factor into later postseason seedings.
"They are an up and coming team in their conference," Talon said of Babson. This season the Beavers are 23-12, and should be a worthy tune up before Tufts heads to Colby on Saturday for the final regular season games of the year.
