It was do or die. Next weekend, it will still be do or die. And the weekend after that? Do or die.
Tufts baseball swept a crucial three-game series against NESCAC-East opponent Colby College this weekend -- 11-1, 9-4, and 16-6 -- but the Jumbos, now 5-4 in the conference, are hardly in the clear. Next weekend, the squad must sweep Bates in order to pull even with Bowdoin (8-4 in NESCAC-E). If such a tie occurs, Tufts will advance to the conference tournament based on a 2-1 record versus the Polar Bears. Trinity (10-2) has already secured the other NESCAC-E berth, as well as top seed in the tourney.
"It's in our hands now, so that's all we can ask for," coach John Casey said. "We did what we had to do [against Colby]. Now we just have to go up [to Bates] and do what we have to do there."
On Saturday, while anxiously awaiting word on a critical Bowdoin-Bates doubleheader (at least one Bates victory would keep Tufts in the running), the Jumbos did their own part with a two-game rout of the Mules on Tufts' Huskins Field.
Game one was highlighted by the bats of freshman Brian McDavitt and sophomore Jim O'Leary, who nailed their first collegiate home runs in the bottom of the fourth. McDavitt led off with a poke over the center field wall. Minutes later, freshman Chris Decembrele singled and stole second before being driven home by O'Leary's homer, a monster that sailed over center-right field for an estimated 400 feet.
"It was nice to see some power," senior co-captain Adam Kacamburas said. "That's a quick and easy way to get some runs."
After the abuse of the McDavitt-O'Leary tag team, Colby pulled freshman Robert Rosenbaum in favor of reliever John Beitia. Though he started with the bases clear (thanks to O'Leary), the righty took a beating nonetheless, walking four consecutive Jumbos and advancing one on a wild pitch. A Kacamburas walk pushed sophomore Greg Chertok home, to cap Tufts' breakaway inning at 10-1. Earlier, Kacamburas hit three doubles in as many at bats, driving in two runs and scoring three.
To match the Jumbo offense of game one, senior co-captain Randy Newsom (5-1, 3.86 ERA) gave an exceptional effort on the mound. Incredibly efficient, Newsom threw just 65 pitches in the complete seven-inning game. Even more impressive was Newsom's strikes to balls ratio; he threw 51 strikes and just 15 balls on the afternoon. The ace struck out six batters (two looking), walked none, and allowed just three hits and one earned run. In comparison, Colby's Rosenbaum threw 77 pitches (44 strikes) in 4.1 innings and allowed 11 hits and seven earned runs.
"It's easy to go out there when you know you're going to have good defense and kids scoring every time," Newsom said. "I was aggressive that whole game and that's why. They were aggressive too and it worked to my benefit."
Tufts started game two with far quieter bats, chalking up its first tally in the fourth inning, but eventually prevailing, 9-4. Colby took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when sophomore Travis Agustin reached first on a Chertok error at shortstop, and scored on an RBI double through the right field gap from freshman Andy Carr. The Mules upped it to 2-0 in the third, when Tufts' starter Ben Simon walked Colby freshman Brian Liberty, who then advanced to third on a sacrifice hit by sophomore Rodney Ames and scored off a single by freshman shortstop Tom Salemy.
Like Colby, Tufts tends to have numerous underclassmen on the field at once, but for the Jumbos, veterans, like seniors Newsom, Kacamburas, and Dave Frew, seem to have had a strong positive influence on the development of the Jumbos' youth contingent, which has posted increasingly strong performances.
En route to his fourth career victory, Simon (4-1, 2.36 ERA), a freshman, was supported by classmate Aaron Narva (4.32 ERA), who picked up his third save. At the plate in game two, Decembrele was 2 for 3 with an RBI and two runs scored, Chertok was 2 for 3 with three RBI and a run, and McDavitt was 3-4 with an RBI.
It was the fleet-footed Chertok who fueled Tufts' charge into the lead in game two. He drove in a pair with a fourth-inning double (for the 2-2 tie), stole second, then snagged the go-ahead run with spectacular base-running on a ground ball by junior Bob Kenny.
Tufts chalked up a whopping 36 runs in the Colby series, with almost half in yesterday's 16-6 rout. Kenny upped his average to .321 with a 2 for 4 outing in game three, where he scored twice and drove in a pair.
The wild performance of Colby starter Jordan Henry stood in stark contrast to Tufts junior Jeremy Davis, who christened game three by shutting down five consecutive batters. Davis (4.70 ERA) ran a no-hitter into the fifth, when Colby freshman Andy Carr notched a single. He left after seven innings, with five hits and no runs allowed, at which point senior Dave Frew entered for an inning of scoreless relief.
Sophomore Erik Johanson ran into trouble when he took to the mound in the ninth, as Colby broke onto the scoreboard with half a dozen runs on as many hits, including a pair of wind-aided homers over the centerfield wall. Senior Nick Palange had a rough ninth inning as well, as he returned to the diamond for the first time since suffering a knee injury on April 10, but left the game when Colby's Vincent Domestico slid into him during a forced-out play at second base.
Narva took over for Johanson with two outs to go in the ninth and ended the series with a swingless strikeout of Colby's Rosenbaum, who returned from his rough pitching performance in game one to take over second base.
Throughout the weekend, Colby's young, weak pitching staff provided fertile ground for the Jumbos offense to bolster statistics. O'Leary (.375) was 6 for 10 in the series with three runs and five RBI, while Kacamburas (.333) was 5 for 11 with five runs and six RBI. Decembrele (.324) finished 7 for 12 with five runs and two RBI, and fellow freshman McDavitt (.320) went 7 for 13 with three runs and as many RBI. Clement boosted himself to the top of Tufts' batting ranks (.419) as he hit 5 for 9, crossed the plate five times, and drove in another four.
"It was nice to get solid offensive output throughout the weekend, but we need to be more consistent," Kacamburas said. "We will see better pitching this upcoming week and we need to continue to have good at bats and to be productive."
