Baseball team loses two of three at Trinity

Taking advantage of sloppy defense often means the difference between winning and losing baseball games.

The Jumbos went into last weekend's three game series with the Trinity Bantams in Hartford, CT tied with their opponent for first place in the NESCAC East Division. The team ended the weekend with a 6-3 league record (14-8 overall) and left Hartford with sole possession of second place in the league. Tufts made six errors and failed to capitalize on enough of Trinity's 11 miscues, resulting in the Jumbos dropping two of the three games.

"It was exactly what we expected," coach John Casey said. "We didn't make a few plays and they made a bunch of errors. We have to make plays when they're right there. We have to tighten up a little bit."

In the second game of Saturday's double header, Tufts offense exploded with 12 runs. Unfortunately the defense could not stop the Bantams from sending 15 men across home plate.

"It wasn't a very well played game," Casey said.

Trinity jumped out to an early lead after exploding in the first and third innings for a total of six runs. The Jumbos tallied a run of their own in the top of the third when junior third baseman Adam Kacamburas singled in senior DH Jon Herbert from third.

Trailing 6-1, the Jumbos turned the tables during the middle innings scoring five runs in the fifth and four in the sixth to put them up 11-6. Junior catcher Greg Hickey hit a two run blast to highlight the fifth.

"We made some changes with the batting order," senior tri-captain and center fielder Evan Zupancic said. "It was good to see the bats wake up a little bit, but you have to have defense if you're going to produce with the offense. There were chances when we didn't put up runs in that game too, their pitching wasn't that great."

The Jumbos' offensive flame went out however, when Trinity retaliated with three runs in the seventh and five more in the eighth to take the lead for good at 15-11. Bantam Rob Dolliver hit his second homer of the game in the eighth to turn the lights out for good on the Jumbos. The Trinity senior had three hits and knocked in four runs in the game.

Tufts starting pitcher, junior Randy Newsom, lasted only two innings giving up six runs on seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Junior hurler Dave Frew took the loss for the Jumbos putting him at 0-2 on the season.

"We got good pitching in the second game," Casey said. "[Senior Mike Byron] had a good five innings, but we dropped a fly ball on him. We had 12 good innings of pitching, but you have to play the full sixteen innings."

Though Tufts scored half the runs they did in game two, this time the team was able to come away with a 6-4 win in game one of the Saturday doubleheader.

Nationally honored pitcher senior Jon Lee had yet another successful outing with six and two-thirds innings of solid work. Lee gave up seven hits and four runs, but struck out nine Bantams to improve his record to 7-2. He currently holds a team-best 2.90 ERA.

"[Lee] is so talented. He's such a fierce competitor," Zupancic said. "He goes out there every time and does what he's told to do. He has an amazing work ethic and just goes out there and throws the ball."

Lee was pulled after a rocky bottom of the seventh in which seven straight Bantams reached base with two outs. Newsom came in to induce the final out and earned his fifth save of the year.

The Jumbos provided Lee the offensive support he needed for the victory beginning early in the game. Sophomore second baseman Frank Dinucci had an RBI single in the second and Kacamburas knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly in the Trinity error-assisted three run third inning.

The previous day, it was Trinity who tallied the six runs needed for a win as the Jumbos fell to the Bantams 6-1.

Trinity junior pitcher Kevin Tidmarsh threw a complete game three hitter for the victory. In his fifth win of the season, Tidmarsh (5-0) struck out six Jumbos and allowed just one unearned run, improving his ERA to 2.31.

Pitching for Tufts, Martin (4-1) threw a complete game as well. However, the righty gave up 13 hits and five earned runs in losing his first game of the season.

Tufts will put the weekend series in the past as it prepares for two non-league home games this week. The team will face off against UMass Dartmouth (9-12) today at 3:00 p.m. on Huskins field. The Jumbos will also be in action again tomorrow versus 10-5 Bentley at the same location.

Though they do not contribute to playoff seedings, these non-league contests do hold some importance for the team.

"This weekend will be big for us up at Colby," Zupancic said. "But there are a couple of games before that we really need to focus on to straighten things out as a team. We need to decide collectively how we need to play and how our attitude is going to be. Every game is important because it reflects on how we are as a team."