The adage "it's better to be lucky than good" is perhaps the biggest cliché in sports, but it perfectly describes yesterday's non-conference contest between the Jumbo baseball team and the Bentley Falcons.
"Neither team played well," coach John Casey said shortly after Tufts' 4-3 victory, which featured abundant sloppy baserunning and defense but hardly any timely hitting. "We just got lucky and won."
The Jumbo hitters were quite lucky in the bottom of the ninth, benefiting from the erratic pitching of Bentley's second reliever, freshman Matt Sherman. After a leadoff single by junior co-captain Alex Perry through the left side, the Falcons' righty entered and promptly walked junior Anthony Fucillo and senior co-captain Kevin Casey to load the bases with only one out, and Lady Luck took over for Tufts from there.
Sophomore David Orlowitz came up for the Jumbos with a heavy weight on his shoulders, as Tufts had already stranded three runners at third base and five total in scoring position in the game. He failed to execute his game plan, but he came away with the equalizing RBI anyway.
"I came up wanting to keep my weight back and swing hard and didn't do either, but was lucky to drive in the run," Orlowitz said.
Orlowitz's game-tying hit was essentially a swinging safety squeeze that dribbled up the first-base line, forcing Bentley to attempt an impossible forceout at the plate. And as if that weren't enough, the Jumbos walked off with the winning run a batter later when junior Caleb Sims hit a routine grounder to first that scored Fucillo on an errant throw to the plate from junior first baseman Garrett Stenhouse that sailed left of the bag.
"We set the game of baseball back 300 years," said coach Casey, summing-up the one-run win.
On a day in which five Tufts pitchers threw, Jumbos starter Pat O'Donnell did not have his best stuff on the mound, and the visiting Falcons took advantage quickly, plating a run in the first inning with a bases-loaded walk. Yet the sophomore executed a successful pickoff play at second base, allowing him to escape without further damage.
Sophomore Jack Dilday provided solid relief in the third and fourth innings, and Bentley would not score again until the fifth, when Stenhouse ripped an ill-placed changeup from junior Tom Hill just over the right-field fence to give the Falcons a 2-0 advantage.
That insurance run seemed to light a fire under the previously dormant Jumbo lineup, which came to life in the bottom half of the fifth. Junior Corey Pontes led off the frame with a single up the middle and was promptly driven in by freshman Matt Collins, who singled to right field two batters later, slicing the Bentley lead in half.
Tufts would add the tying run later in the fifth when senior Dave Katzman drew a walk with the bases loaded and might have taken the lead were it not for an inning-ending double-play ball off the bat of Casey.
In the three frames following that two-run outburst, the teams' offenses were stymied by each other's bullpens, as Tufts sophomore Ed Bernstein and Bentley freshman Blaine McLean kept the 2-2 tally intact. All of that would change dramatically in the ninth, however, as both lineups awakened from their afternoon nap.
After the Jumbos retired freshman Vinnie Eruzione on a base-hit bunt attempt to begin the inning, sophomore Ross Curley got the Falcons going with a one-out single off freshman Chris DeGoti. Curley then stole second to get into scoring position for Bentley, and he cashed in the go-ahead run on an RBI single by junior Mike DeCoste. DeGoti was able to induce a pair of groundouts to keep the deficit manageable, but the righty would need quite a bit of help to remain undefeated on the season.
"I didn't pitch very well and was fortunate to have the team pick me up," DeGoti said.
With the victory, the Jumbos improved their overall record to 10-14 on the season. They will now turn their attention to a critical three-game home series against NESCAC rival Bowdoin this weekend, beginning Friday afternoon. The Polar Bears, who are 3-3 in NESCAC play, own a one-game edge over Tufts (2-4) heading into the matchup, which could prove pivotal to both teams' playoff hopes as the season winds down.
