While many Tufts spring breakers were dreading the end of their week in the sun, the baseball team was ending its week on a high note.
After sliding to 3-4 on the season with a rough road stretch in North Carolina, the Jumbos bounced back with authority, winning four-straight games over the weekend against their Virginian opponents to finish the week with a 7-4 record.
"All the teams we played are extremely competitive," senior catcher Chris Decembrele said. "They're deep into their season, and we're just starting out. It just happens to be that some of the losses earlier in the week by coincidence were in North Carolina, but it was really just us playing our first couple days and having to be outside for the first time."
The Tufts resurgence began Friday afternoon in Ashland, Va., as a 10-inning Jumbo victory over Randolph-Macon was the first of the team's four weekend wins, which also included a Saturday sweep of Apprentice and a dramatic comeback win Sunday over Virginia Wesleyan.
Down 10-3 after six innings against Virginia Wesleyan, the Jumbos were in need of an offensive spark, and they got it. After a two-run seventh, Decembrele led off the eighth inning with a home run, propelling the Tufts offense on a game-tying five-run rally.
"They're a good team, and they took advantage of our mistakes," Decembrele said. "They may have gotten a little comfortable with the seven-run lead. We had guys on base all game and couldn't get them in, but later it kind of came together. That's just baseball - sometimes you go down and sometimes you get up. It's a long game, so you have to really stay with it all nine innings."
After Decembrele's blast, three Jumbo hits and a slew of Virginia Wesleyan mistakes left the game tied heading into the ninth. In the game's final inning, two freshmen - third baseman Caleb Sims and outfielder John Temple - reached base before senior tri-captain Brian Casey drove them in with a two-run double, giving Tufts a 12-10 lead. As the seventh Tufts pitcher of the game, Casey then retired the Marlins in order in the bottom of the inning.
"Whenever coach calls our number, we're ready to go in the game," junior pitcher Jason Protano said. "We know it's important to get our rest and to be ready for whenever, and I think so far people have responded really well."
While the offense came up big on Sunday, the Jumbos' sweep of their Saturday doubleheader with Apprentice belonged to the pitching staff.
The Jumbos took game one 2-0, as senior Derek Rice threw a complete-game shutout, allowing just three hits. In game two, sophomore Mike Stefaniak and freshman Jordan Goldberg combined to allow only four hits in a 2-1 win. The Jumbo offense was also quiet, but four Apprentice errors opened the doors for the two Tufts victories.
The first of the four wins was the dramatic defeat of Randolph-Macon on Friday afternoon. Junior Adam Telian started the game, and with a 2-0 lead, he took a shutout into the ninth inning. The Yellow Jackets, however, came back to tie the game at 2-2 in the ninth.
The Jumbos responded with a four-run, six-hit rally in the 10th inning, including a two-run single from Casey, and took the field in the bottom of the inning with a 6-2 lead. Casey took the mound for the save and surrendered just one run, finishing off the 6-3 win.
The win over Randolph-Macon was pivotal for the Jumbos. Before the ten-inning win, Tufts had dropped three-straight games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - one to Greensboro, one to Methodist, and one to North Carolina Wesleyan.
Tuesday afternoon's loss to Greensboro marked a low point for the Jumbos, who dropped the contest by a score of 18-5. The Greensboro hitters racked up 24 hits, and its relievers held the Jumbos hitless after the third inning.
"We know that we're a better team than that," Protano said. "When you're playing a lot of games in a lot of days, there's an opportunity to change things very quickly. Towards the end of the trip, we took advantage of that and came away with a pretty good record."
While the Jumbos have been streaky to date - they started the week 3-1, dropped three-straight, and then won four-consecutive weekend games - they will attempt to return to their consistent winning ways this weekend. Friday afternoon marks the Jumbos' home opener, as they take on the Bates Bobcats for a three-game series at Huskins Field.
Carly Helfand contributed reporting to this article.
