Looking back (April 14) | Detroit Tigers 11, Minnesota Twins 9
The Detroit Tigers overcame two five-run deficits to defeat the Minnesota Twins on Monday and get their first home win of the young season.
The victory put an end to a two-game losing streak and gave fans something to cheer about in what has been a disastrous start to the 2008 campaign. On the heels of an 88-win season, the Tigers were considered a trendy pick by most experts to contend for the American League pennant. But heading into Wednesday's game against the Cleveland Indians, the Tigers stood at a lowly 4-10.
Still, Monday's victory showed that the Tigers have yet to lose their fighting spirit under manager Jim Leyland. Down 5-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Tigers put up four runs on the strength of hits from Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Guillen and Edgar Renteria. The Twins countered with four more runs in the top of the seventh to extend their lead to 9-4. But after a solo home run from Ivan Rodriguez narrowed the gap to 9-5 in the bottom of the seventh, the true heroics came in the bottom of the eighth, when Detroit put up six runs to take an 11-9 lead.
The damage was done by Magglio Ordonez's RBI single, Guillen's RBI double and Rodriguez's two-run triple. Closer Todd Jones came in for the save in the ninth inning.
Since that win, the Tigers have posted two more victories, with the latest coming last night over the Cleveland Indians, the squad expected to provide Detroit with the stingiest competition for the AL Central crown.
Looking ahead (April 18-19) | Softball vs. Trinity
The softball team will look to clinch the NESCAC East crown and a berth in the conference championships this weekend as they play host to a three-game series against the second-place Trinity Bantams at Spicer Field.
In order to pull off the feat, the Jumbos, 6-0 in the conference and 19-6 overall, will need to take two of three this weekend from the Bantams, who boast a 7-2 conference record to go along with a 13-8 overall mark.
The two teams last met in last season's NESCAC championship game on May 6. The Jumbos limited Trinity to just three hits en route to a comfortable 5-0 victory that earned them their fourth-ever conference title and their first since 2003.
This season, the offenses of both teams are extremely well-matched. Tufts has a team average of .348 to go along with 22 home runs, while Trinity is slightly worse in each category, batting .337 with 18 home runs. However, the Bantams' team OPS slightly edges that of the Jumbos, .924 to .898.
As far as pitching, Tufts has the better team ERA (2.94 to 3.39), but Trinity has an ace that can compete with anyone. Junior Gabrielle Sergi has carried the Bantams' staff, tallying an 8-4 record with a 2.98 ERA in a tremendous 82.1 innings pitched.
The Jumbos counter with junior Lauren Gelmetti, who has surrendered just four earned runs in her last six starts en route to an 8-1 record.
