With a win over Amherst in its third game of the NESCAC Tournament on May 12, the baseball team won its 25th game, reaching the milestone for the first time in five years and earning its 13th win in NESCAC play. On the surface, that looked like enough to book the Jumbos a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Unfortunately for Tufts, the selection committee had other plans.
The Jumbos, who lost the NESCAC championship game 8-5 to Williams one week ago today, were passed over for the tournament, despite finishing the regular season with the NESCAC's best record. Their division rival Trinity Bantams, who lost two of three meetings with Tufts and didn't even make the conference playoffs, earned a pool C berth, however, taking the fifth seed in the New York region.
"Honestly, I don't think my words would be proper for the Daily," senior tri-captain Brian Casey said. "But it just happens that way. They're a good team, and they had 28 wins. We put ourselves in the right position, but it just didn't work out - we didn't win the big game when we needed it. Why Trinity made the tournament and we didn't, though, I can't really speak to that."
In the end, it may have come down to win totals. Despite the team's lackluster strength of schedule, Trinity's record is hard to overlook. The 25-12 Jumbos could have emerged from Sunday with 27 wins if they'd swept Williams, but it wasn't meant to be. After losing to Amherst in the tournament opener Friday, the entire weekend changed for the East champion Tufts squad.
"I think the biggest difference [between Tufts and Williams] in the tournament is that we lost the first game, and it was all uphill from there," senior Chris Decembrele said. "So we were playing our fourth game in three days, they were playing their third. I really didn't see many big differences - they were just a bit fresher."
The Amherst loss was a heartbreaker for the Jumbos, who fought hard Friday afternoon to keep things close. But it was all for naught. Tufts fell behind 7-0 early, as both junior Adam Telian and freshman David Gibbs were shaky on the mound, but senior Carlos Lopez put out the fire nicely. Lopez pitched three and a third scoreless innings to finish things out, but the Tufts comeback came up just short.
The Jumbos rallied for six runs in the fourth, including a huge two-run double from Decembrele, but lost 8-7 after failing to score more than one additional run from the fifth inning forward. The loss was their second of the season to a NESCAC West foe, as Williams beat them 4-3 in 10 innings on April 7.
"They're good teams," Casey said of Amherst and Williams. "They're good programs - year in and year out, they're always competitive. We gave them our best, and things just didn't work out. But that's how it is in baseball - sometimes things just don't go your way."
The Jumbos bounced back the next day, pounding Bowdoin's Turgeon brothers, junior Ryan and senior Tyler, for 10 runs in a combined 3.2 innings and cruising to an 11-6 victory. Later in the afternoon, they avenged their loss to Amherst, winning 9-4 behind a strong outing from junior Jason Protano and knocking the Lord Jeffs out of the playoffs.
"We played a better game," Casey said. "We handed them runs in the Friday game and dug ourselves into a hole. We played much better the second time around, which resulted in a win."
As it turns out, that win wasn't enough. In the end, the Ephs rallied for three runs in the eighth inning of the title game, chasing freshman Thomas Hill after back-to-back hits and then getting to Casey, who allowed the three runs to score. The 8-5 loss was enough to eliminate the Jumbos from playoff contention, but not enough to dampen their pride in what they've accomplished this season.
"We faced a lot of adversity this season," Casey said. "We had some difficult off-the-field issues to deal with and lost some key players to injury, but we didn't make it an excuse. We still went out there and played."
Brian Bailey contributed reporting to this article.
