After a tough face-off with Amherst last week, the Tufts baseball team rallied for a series sweep against Bates this past weekend, pushing its record to second-best in the NESCAC. The Jumbos beat the Bobcats on Friday, 12–2, and in a double-header on Saturday, 6–1 and 8–4, respectively.
For game one, the Jumbos got straight to work, recording two hits in the first inning, but no runs. Tufts sent senior pitcher Cole Donato to the mound, who has recorded a 2.25 ERA in six wins and a loss this season, and it showed in his three hitless innings to start the game.
The Jumbos had standalone hits each inning through the fourth and started a rally in the fifth. Senior second baseman Jesse McCollough reached base on a throwing error, then scored on a double from sophomore shortstop James Henshon. Henshon then advanced to third on a wild pitch, before scoring on a sacrifice fly from sophomore right fielder Jack Kamin, putting two runs on the board.
Donato had another three-up, three-down inning in the sixth. To kick off the bottom of the inning, first-year third baseman Tom Pender reached base on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice bunt by junior first baseman AJ Lysko.
Bohane pinch hit for junior designated hitter Max Pavlik and promptly sent a ball past the fence in right center, tacking on another two runs to Tufts’s lead. Henshon was then hit by a pitch and rounded the bases on a single to right center by Kamin. Tufts 6, Bates 0.
The Bobcats retaliated in the bottom of the inning with two runs, but the adrenaline kept pumping for the Jumbos, who put up a six-run rally in the seventh. After Pender was hit-by-pitch and Lysko reached on a throwing error, McKiernan knocked a double back to left center. Bohane showed some love to the left side, sending another homer past the fence for three more runs.
The Jumbos put two more men on base, and senior catcher Malcolm Whitfield dropped a single to short to give them a 10-run lead and lock down their first win of the series.
On Saturday morning, sophomore pitcher Emmet Christian took the mound for one of his final starts. Tufts struck first in the second inning, putting up three hits for a run on behalf of sophomore first baseman Gavin Lind.
Christian kept rolling with three nasty innings, only giving up his second hit of the day in the fifth. In retaliation, the Jumbos took the game to the next level, starting with a leadoff single from McCullough. Henshon followed, reaching base on a throwing error — a recurring event in this series.
Two consecutive singles from Kamin and first-year left fielder Tate Bannish scored McCullough and Henshon respectively. Whitfield then singled to the right side, advancing Bannish to third. In succession, Kamin scored on a wild pitch, then Pender doubled to right field and brought in two more runs.
The Bobcats only put up a run in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out sacrifice fly. Christian ended the day with another stellar line: one earned run, three hits, eight strikeouts and only 23 batters faced in seven innings.
Yet, the Jumbos were not done for the day, coming right back out to Leahey Field seeking their second three-game sweep of the season. They got to work immediately — leadoff man Henshon reached base yet again on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a single to left center by Kamin. Bannish grounded out but it was enough to bring Henshon home and give them yet another early lead.
Junior pitcher Michael O’Brien looked promising through the first two innings, while the offense gave Bobcat pitching difficulty, logging two hits, a walk and a stolen base through the third. Bates tied up the game with a run scored on two singles in the third.
McKiernan took it upon himself to bring back the lead, sending a ball to the right field fence on a 0-1 pitch in the fourth, but Bates got to O’Brien, putting up three runs on five hits and ending his outing.
The McCullough-Henshon duo immediately put two runners on base in the fifth so that Kamin could score the former on a sacrifice fly. A fielding error to Whitfield allowed Henshon to round the bases and tie up the game again, this time at four runs each.
Tufts got their lead back an inning later: McKiernan reached on a hit by pitch and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Lind. A single up the middle by junior designated hitter Caden Abraham brought McKiernan home.
They tacked on another run in a seventh inning rally, giving the Bobcats’ pitching staff difficulty: A walk and two hit-by-pitches pushed runners around the bases. Though they only scored one run, eight batters appeared in the seventh and Tufts left three men on base.
They put up their last two runs in the eighth, with McKiernan intentionally walked and RBIs charged to a sac ground out by Lind and a single to right by Abraham respectively.
Junior pitcher Mitchell Hwang held the Bobcats to four runs, pitching 5.1 innings of two-hit ball and securing his fourth win of the season.
In their last week of the season, Tufts faced Roger Williams University on Wednesday. Tufts will take on Trinity this weekend at Sol Gittleman Park in a series that determines who wins best record in the NESCAC.
“We are really excited about the spot we are in right now. … The winner of the series [on Saturday] gets the one seed on the east side of the NESCAC,” McKiernan wrote in a message to the Daily. “At this point, all of us have worked really hard and this is the fun part where we just get to compete.”
