By the middle of Saturday afternoon, the baseball team was riding a 10-game winning streak, its longest streak in five years. Three hours later, that streak was over.
After pounding NESCAC rival Williams in the opening game of Saturday's doubleheader 7-3, the host Jumbos came up short in the late afternoon rematch, squandering a one-run lead late in the game and eventually falling 4-3 in a 10-inning marathon.
The doubleheader was marked by a pair of strong pitching performances from two veteran Tufts starters, senior Derek Rice and junior Jason Protano. Rice took a no-hitter into the fourth inning in game one, eventually emerging with his team-high third win of the year, while Protano took his outing into the seventh inning, allowing three runs and striking out seven Ephs.
"They were great," senior tri-captain Bryan McDavitt said. "They kept us in the ballgames. They did exactly what we asked them to do - they kept the ball down, and they threw strikes. It's unfortunate that we couldn't put them in a position to win."
As it turns out, McDavitt was the final Jumbo baserunner of the doubleheader, left stranded on first base when junior Steve Ragonese grounded out to end the bottom of the 10th and final inning of game two. The Ephs snuck out of Medford with the win, thanks to an RBI double from freshman Robin Allemand in the top of the inning.
In a doubleheader game scheduled to go just seven innings, a stellar performance from the Ephs' relief corps kept Williams in the game until the offense could muster a run in the 10th. Freshman Paul Burgdorf and senior Sam Tuttle combined for five scoreless innings when senior Ryan Fote left the mound after five of his own.
"Their bullpen did a great job," McDavitt said. "They obviously held us at bay - they did exactly what they were told to do."
"It's Williams," Tufts senior Chris Decembrele said. "They're good at everything - they're always going to be strong. And especially in a game like this, where we want to win and they want to win, where it's a good rivalry, they're not going to throw just anyone out there. That's a really good bullpen."
The Jumbos took a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning of game two when Ragonese followed up a McDavitt RBI double with a two-run blast to left-center. The Ephs, however, got a run back in the seventh. Protano allowed the inning's first two runners to reach base, forcing coach John Casey to turn to senior tri-captain Brian Casey to pitch the remainder of the seventh. But Casey promptly gave up an RBI single to junior James Dicosmo.
The Tufts offense, meanwhile, was inconsistent at best in the second game. The Jumbos churned out three runs on three hits in their fourth-inning rally, but managed just four hits in the game's other nine innings, which were all scoreless for a Tufts lineup struggling to find its rhythm.
"They threw a lefty at us, and that was a change of pace for us," McDavitt said. "A couple of guys got out on their front foot. We also got on top of a couple balls, so we just weren't hitting the ball as hard as we were in the first game."
While the Jumbo hitters ran into trouble in the second game, they opened the day on the right foot. Tufts batted around twice in game one, rallying for four runs in the third inning and three in the fifth, as they teed off against Williams senior Cory Catelli. Ragonese and freshman Corey Pontes each drove in two runs for the Jumbos, while sophomores Kevin Casey and Dave Katzman each plated one.
The seven runs were more than enough support for Rice, who was credited with the win as Tufts prevailed 7-3. The first hit he surrendered came with one out in the fourth on liner to the left side by senior Jared Mayers. Rice turned in five solid innings on the mound, striking out six Ephs before leaving with nobody out in the sixth.
"Rice came out and pitched really well," Decembrele said. "There were a couple of potential big innings where he shut them down well, and he got us out of some jams."
With the doubleheader split, the Jumbos move to 13-5 on the season, while the Ephs are 11-5, as both teams look to jostle for a shot at postseason play. The Jumbos remain 3-0 in their division, as the Williams loss doesn't hurt their undefeated NESCAC East record; but still, it's never easy to snap a 10-game winning streak.
"Obviously it's a setback," McDavitt said. "It hurts. It hurts to lose no matter what, in any game that you play. But you know, I think we learned a lot from playing a game in the NESCAC. And our coaches will do a good job scouting Bowdoin, and I think we'll be well prepared when next week comes around."
The Jumbos' next game is actually an afternoon game at Brandeis tomorrow, but it's hard for them to focus on their midweek match-up with the Judges. The Bowdoin Polar Bears are the reigning division champions, but unlike last year, the Jumbos will get a chance to beat them at home on Friday, as the two division powers open the season's most crucial weekend series.
"Bowdoin is ultimately who we're gunning for," Decembrele said. "That's our main goal. It's the NESCAC East - we need to win those games. The midweek games, as much as we want to win those games, they're just to prepare us for Bowdoin. They're preparing us for Bowdoin, and Colby, and the NESCAC games that we need to win to get into the playoffs."
