The baseball team enjoyed a major bounce-back effort on Saturday, sweeping a doubleheader from NESCAC East rival Bowdoin after dropping the first game of the series on Friday. The victories improved the Jumbos to 4-2 in divisional play.
After losing on Friday 6-4, Tufts came determined to triumph in both games on Saturday. The Jumbos took the first game in dramatic fashion, winning 13-12 in eight innings, while their second victory, a 9-2 win, was never in question.
"It was crucial [to win]," senior pitcher Jason Protano said. "We put ourselves in a little bit of a difficult spot by losing on Friday. To keep our chances alive to win the NESCAC East we need to win both games, and that's what we did."
Protano started the first game of Saturday's double-dip, facing off against Bowdoin senior Ryan Turgeon. The Jumbos drew blood in the first when freshman Ian Goldberg reached base on an error and then scored on a wild pitch.
In the second inning, with the bases loaded, another wild pitch allowed the second run of the game to score, while a single from junior co-captain Kevin Casey drove in the third. Of the three runs scored, none were earned, a recurring theme of the day.
Tufts struck again in the fourth when freshman shortstop Dave Leresche, who reached on Bowdoin's fourth error of the afternoon, stole home. With two outs and the bases loaded later in the inning, sophomore catcher Alex Perry walked to bring in a run. The next batter, freshman Chase Rose, singled to drive in two more runs.
That chased Bowdoin starter Turgeon from the game after only 3.2 innings pitched. He gave up five hits and seven runs - zero of them earned.
The Jumbos seemed to have a comfortable lead up 7-0, but Bowdoin made it a game in the fourth. Five hits and a hit batsman in that inning yielded five runs for the Polar Bears, making it a much closer 7-5 contest.
"I went away from the game plan that we had," Protano said. "I fell in love with my fastball and didn't mix it up as well. They were able to string a bunch of hits together and score some runs."
Tufts scored four more runs over the next three innings, while Bowdoin put up three runs in the sixth against Protano. That made it an 11-8 game heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, with sophomore reliever Tommy Hill attempting to close the door. Unfortunately, Bowdoin managed to keep it open.
The Polar Bears led off the bottom of the seventh with a single. Two walks and two popouts made it a bases-loaded situation with two outs in the last frame of regulation. Hill hit a batter to force in a run, while the next batter singled to drive in two and tie the game. But freshman pitcher Derek Miller relieved Hill and got the final out of the inning.
"I didn't really make any pitches," Hill said. "I just repeatedly missed spots, and I can't afford to do that. I don't have an overpowering fastball or anything; I need to make the pitch every pitch. It was just control issues. I was all over the place."
In the top of the eighth, Tufts again scored an error, followed later in the inning by a bases-loaded walk from Goldberg. Tufts had another lead, 13-11, heading into the bottom of the inning with another chance to close out Bowdoin.
The Polar Bears led off with a double, followed by a strikeout and an error that gave Bowdoin runners on the corners. The next batter singled to score a run and put the tying and winning runs on first and second with one out. Miller managed to get out of the jam, however, striking out the next batter and getting a lineout to clinch the victory.
"It felt really good, because if we had lost that it would've been my fault," Hill said. "It was clearly a must-win game. If we lost that game, we're pretty much out of the playoffs. In the end, the only thing that matters is that we won."
Reliever Steve Hall of Bowdoin took the loss, while Miller pitched 1.1 frames of scoreless ball to take the win. The Polar Bears made six errors in the game, leading to eight unearned runs for Tufts.
In the second half of the doubleheader, Bowdoin was again plagued by sloppy play, as its three errors in the first inning allowed Tufts to score five runs. Freshman Pat O'Donnell allowed two runs over seven innings to continue his strong season and earn his fourth victory for the Jumbos. His ERA currently stands at 1.02 with 35.1 innings under his belt.
Casey and Rose led the Tufts offense in the doubleheader, as Casey went 6-for-8 with three runs scored while Rose went 4-for-7 with three runs and four RBI.
The victories came on the heels of a tough loss in the series opener Friday afternoon. After the Jumbos jumped out to a 4-2 lead through six innings, Bowdoin scored four unanswered runs over the final three frames to steal the victory.
Tufts now looks toward midweek contests at UMass Dartmouth and home against Albertus Magnus, followed by three home games against the currently undefeated Trinity Bantams (23-0, 9-0 NESCAC East) next weekend.
"We're going to look at [the two weekday] games first," Hill said. "We're going to try to tighten things up and play our best baseball heading into the Trinity series. It'll clear up the playoff situation, so it's a big game. They really want to beat us and we really want to beat them."
