Despite being outhit 10-9, and allowing four runs in the eighth, the baseball team continued its torrid early-season start, beating Mass. Maritime 12-7 on Monday. The win was the team's ninth straight, moving the Jumbos' overall record to 17-1.
The first inning of play, in which the Jumbos scored seven runs on only two hits, was a microcosm of the game as a whole.
Junior centerfielder Connor McDavitt reached first on an error to start the inning. After a pitch hit junior third baseman Wade Hauser and senior designated hitter Max Freccia walked, the bases were loaded for sophomore first baseman Mike Barry, who ripped a double to plate all three players and put Tufts up 3-0. After another walk, sophomore shortstop Matt Moser drove in two runs with a triple to open up the game. A sacrifice fly brought in Moser to make it 6-0. After the third walk of the inning, McDavitt reached on another error, and knocked in the seventh run of the game for the Jumbos.
"The first play of the game, which was an error, set the tempo for the rest of the inning," Buccaneers head coach Bob Corradi said. "The starting pitcher [freshman Alex Rozak] was also wild ... and when you play a team the caliber of Tufts, you can't give them extra outs."
Jumbos head coach John Casey was a little less hard on the defensive effort of his opponent, but saw the first inning as important nonetheless.
"I'd say the Mass. Maritime official scorer was a little generous to us, and a little hard on his guys, but I thought we came out and did what we were supposed to on the road, which is jump out on someone and get ahead," Casey said. "Obviously, they made a couple big errors that made our lives easier."
On the other side of the field, Tufts went with a pitcher-by-committee approach, sending seven different pitchers to the mound over the course of the game.
Junior Willie Archibald, who started for Tufts and picked up his first win of the season, tossed two perfect innings before he was taken out for junior Tom Ryan. Ryan followed Archibald with two more scoreless innings, allowing only two hits in the fourth.
"I located my fastball well and kept it down for the most part," Ryan told the Daily in an email. "I didn't walk anyone and when I can force ground balls, I have a lot of confidence in the defense behind me."
In the fourth, the Jumbos tacked on four more runs to build an 11-0 lead.
From the fourth inning on though, the momentum of the game shifted the Buccaneers way, as they outscored the Jumbos 7-1 in the final five frames.
"It's a game that we love to play," Corradi said of his team's late-inning performance. "I'm always on everybody to play to the last out."
Corradi also pointed out that the Buccaneers played against several of the Jumbos' backups in the later innings, which helped his team get back in the game.
After tacking on runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, Mass. Maritime broke out of its offensive slumber in the eighth to put up four runs against freshman Speros Varinos, who was uncharacteristically wild. Varinos walked three of the first four Buccaneers he faced, which led to Varinos needing to work out of a bases-loaded-one-out jam.
"To get back in the game we needed to battle in at-bats, put the ball in play and make their fielders make plays, and that's what we did towards the end of the game," Buccaneers freshman outfielder Aidan Desrosiers said.
By the end of the inning, the Buccaneers had closed the gap to 12-7, but were unable to mount one more rally in the ninth against sophomore Matt Moser, who struck out the side for a one-two-three inning.
"That's human nature," Casey said of the team's end-of-game relaxation. "We're trying to fight that [mentality] a little bit, [because] every at-bat is precious and every play you make is precious. We're just trying to get our guys to play the same way regardless of the situation, and regardless of who we're playing ... so that's why I was a little disappointed [on Monday]."
Yet Casey was quick to point out the overwhelming positives in the game.
"I thought [Willie] Archibald and [Tom] Ryan threw well, and I thought [Matt] Moser threw really well at the end," Casey said. "I thought a couple guys hit the ball well when we needed [them] to."
In particular, Barry and Moser provided timely hitting throughout the game, combing for six RBIs and three runs scored. The team also got a surprising amount of production from the bottom part of the order, with the five through nine hitters combining for six of the Jumbos' nine hits.
Looking ahead, Tufts entered the most challenging portion of its season, with 11 of its final 16 games coming against NESCAC opponents. This weekend, the Jumbos play a three-game series at home against the Trinity Bantams. Trinity is currently at the bottom of the NESCAC East standings, so the series will give Tufts a good chance to assert its position atop the conference.
"We're going to go out and play the way we play," Casey said. "Trinity is a really good team, and they're going to come up here wanting to beat us. We're going to control what we can control. If we play great, and do what we're supposed to do, we'll live with any result. That [mentality] is what we're trying to teach our guys, and we've got to get to the point where the end result is irrelevant to how we play. If [we get there], then we're happy with whatever comes our way."
