While major league baseball teams were wrapping up their spring training camps, the Tufts baseball team was busy opening its league season with a bang against Bates in Lewiston, Maine.
The Jumbos swept the Bobcats in a three-game series and rose to the top of the NESCAC East standings with a 3-0 record. The wins brought Tufts to 11-4 overall on the year.
The series began with a 12-3 Tufts win in Friday night's contest. The team followed up with two more blowout victories, 13-3 and 10-1, in a Saturday afternoon doubleheader at Bates' Campus Avenue Field.
From the opening of Saturday's matinee, the Jumbos jumped on Bates junior starter Griffin Finan. The first five hitters pounded out consecutive singles, kicking off a first-inning rally that yielded five runs on seven hits for the Jumbos.
"I wouldn't say we were surprised," said senior tri-captain Greg Chertok, who singled to start the barrage in the first. "We were able to hit the ball like crazy. One through nine, we all did really well."
Tufts' junior starter Derek Rice ran into some early trouble on the mound, surrendering three runs on four hits and walking three. He was removed with one out in the bottom of the third. Despite the pitching troubles, the Jumbos picked up a run in the second on an RBI double by junior tri-captain Bryan McDavitt for a 6-3 lead.
Sophomore Adam Telian took over for Rice in the third, and pitched four and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief for the Jumbos to earn his first win of the season. Telian allowed just three hits and didn't walk a batter while striking out five Bobcats.
Junior second baseman Brian Casey kicked off another rally for the Jumbos in the sixth, leading off the inning with a double and scoring on a single by senior catcher Ben Chang. By the middle of the sixth inning, Tufts held a 13-3 lead over Bates, and with Telian on the mound, it was more than enough.
Senior southpaw Zak Smotherman took the ball for the second game and yielded just one run in seven innings of work, walking two Bobcats and striking out seven. After running into a jam in the first inning, the veteran recovered to pitch six scoreless innings.
The Jumbos' offense played small-ball throughout the game, with the team's only extra-base hit coming on a fourth-inning double by junior right fielder Kyle Backstrom. The Jumbos' 12 singles, however, were enough to allow them to emerge with a decisive victory.
Freshman southpaw Lawrence Hinkle took the loss for the Bobcats, giving up six earned runs on nine hits in just two and two-thirds innings. Freshman Dan Cook and sophomore Ralph Vitti pitched solid innings in relief, but Bates was never able to recover from the early deficit.
Sophomore Jason Protano and senior Erik Johanson each pitched a scoreless inning of relief to close the game.
Friday night's game, the NESCAC opener for both teams, was an equally strong offensive showing for Tufts. The Jumbos lashed out at Bates sophomore right-hander Sean VanderVliet and the four relievers who followed him, as they amassed 17 hits in the game and scored 12 runs, including five during a sixth-inning rally against sophomore relievers Simon Griesbach and Vitti.
Junior tri-captain Ben Simon pitched six masterful innings on the mound for the Jumbos, but ran into trouble in the seventh when sophomore right fielder Alex Maulucci started off a Bobcats rally with a double to right. Simon left with two outs in the seventh and two runners on, and Protano followed, allowing a two-run double to sophomore shortstop Brian Mahoney. But Protano evaded a big Bates rally, as he finished the inning with a 12-3 lead.
In the three games, the Jumbos amassed 35 runs on 49 hits.
"The team's been playing well of late, and I was feeling good hitting," said senior center fielder Jim O'Leary, who leads the team with a .733 slugging percentage to go with his team second-best .500 average. "We really expected to score runs."
The Jumbos will face off against the Div. II Bentley Falcons tomorrow afternoon, and it hopes to continue on their hitting tear against better competition.
"We've scrimmaged them several times indoors, and we've seen a lot of their pitchers," O'Leary said. "But if we keep playing the way we've been playing, we can beat anybody."
