Looking to regain its momentum after dropping two games against Colby last weekend, the Tufts baseball team instead fell short in a non-conference matchup on Monday night against Salem St., losing 2-0.
The Jumbos were unable to match the impressive work of freshman southpaw Sean Buckland, who pitched a complete game, allowing only two hits while striking out five. Buckland was dominant from the start, consistently getting ahead in the count while throwing a number of different pitches.
"He had three pitches - he was throwing for strikes and they were all good pitches," junior tri-captain pitcher Christian Sbily said. "He was getting a lot of first-pitch strikes and getting his breaking ball over for strikes, so when you can throw three pitches like that it's tough to hit for sure."
"The adjustments were just not made," junior tri-captain catcher Nick Cutsumpas added. "Credit to him for throwing strikes, but there's no way he should have shut us out like that. It's on us. We need to be more aggressive in fastball hitting counts, and when we get those fastballs we need to stay back and hit them hard the other way."
Tufts' only real opportunity to score came in the bottom of the sixth inning. With one out, sophomore center fielder Connor McDavitt singled up the middle and stole second base to put himself into scoring position. Sophomore third baseman Wade Hauser was then hit by a pitch, bringing up sophomore cleanup hitter Bryan Egan with runners on first and second. But the Jumbos were unable to take advantage of the situation, as Egan grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Despite the quiet bats, the Jumbo pitching staff put together an impressive performance. Sophomore right-hander Willie Archibald allowed one earned run over seven innings and classmate Tom Ryan, who leads all pitchers with 13 appearances out of the bullpen, worked his way through two scoreless frames.
With the defeat on Monday, the Jumbos fell to 19-10 on the season. Despite three consecutive losses, Tufts is still very much alive in the NESCAC East division and finds itself in a familiar situation entering their series against Bowdoin this weekend. Earlier this season, Coach John Casey's squad was in a losing skid and managed to overcome its problems to put together an 11-game winning streak. Now, it's just a matter of regaining that winning formula.
"It starts at practice, just guys coming down enthusiastic, ready to go and not really thinking about what happened this past weekend," Cutsumpas said. "Yes, you want to use it as motivation, but you don't want to let it dwell. We know we can do it, we just have to go out there and act."
The Polar Bears will travel to Medford this weekend sitting atop the NESCAC East division with a 7-2 conference record. Bowdoin is led by 2012 NESCAC Pitcher of the Year senior Oliver Van Zant who has continued his domincance in the 2013 campaign.
Van Zant currently leads the NESCAC with 54 strikeouts over 48 innings and has allowed only six earned runs all season. His younger brother, sophomore Henry Van Zant, is also among the top pitchers in the conference, sitting second in the NESCAC in both innings pitched and strikeouts, while also sporting an excellent 2.47 earned run average.
Last year, Bowdoin swept Tufts in the final NESCAC East series of the season, a series that left the Jumbos without a playoff berth. In order to avoid another letdown, the Jumbos must return to playing their style of baseball.
"The key to the weekend is just going to be playing relaxed," Cutsumpas said. "We know we can do it, we've showed it. We just have to believe in ourselves and be confident."
"It's always difficult in a weekend like this when we know we have to win all three games, but mentally and in terms of our approach to the game, we have to stay in the moment and not worry about later in the game or later in the weekend," Sbily added.
The first game of this do-or-die series for the Jumbos will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
