Over the weekend, the baseball team came out strong against Amherst to open NESCAC West play, capturing the three-game series 2-1. With wins both at home and away, the men took back the glory from their Little Three rival—the Cards hadn’t beaten the Lord Jeffs in a series since 2004. In the first game at home on Friday, Wesleyan defeated Amherst 3-1. On Saturday, Amherst captured the first game of a double-header, 7-4, before the Cardinals came back and slayed their rivals 13-5 in the nightcap. With this success also came individual achievement, as Julian Sonnenfeld ’11 was named NESCAC Player of the Week and Dusty Mones ’09 snagged Pitcher of the Week laurels.

“The only thing better than successfully defending our home turf at the heart of campus was going up to Amherst, playing relaxed, confident baseball, and coming back with the series,” said Jeff Bizinkauskas ’10.

On Friday, Wesleyan took the lead in the bottom of the first and never looked back. Sonnenfeld smacked an RBI single to drive in Brandyn Cooper ’12, who had walked to lead off the inning. Sonnenfeld and Garrett Lamborn ’09 teamed up for the second run in the 4th with back-to-back doubles before Lamborn grounded out on a sacrifice play in the 8th.  Mones pitched all nine innings, giving up only five hits and one run. He was able to get Wesleyan out of some tight spots, including a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top of the second. The Cards secured this victory in front of a sizeable home crowd, as Foss Hill was filled with students enjoying one of the first days of spring.

David Skura ’12 had three RBIs in Wesleyan’s loss on Saturday at Amherst. The Lord Jeffs took the lead for good in the bottom of the 4th with two unearned runs after an error and a wild pitch. Even though the Cards went down 7-4 in this seven-inning first game, they were able to exact revenge a few hours later.

Wesleyan opened the rubber game with four runs on five hits before going on to annihilate Amherst 13-5. Kyle Weiss ’12 and Brice Kelly ’10 each had three hits. Former shortstop turned pitcher Drew Dominguez ’09 went the distance for the visitors, scattering 12 hits and giving out just one free pass. With the win, the Cards took the series and the bragging rights for 2009.

“The third game was indicative of how we are going to beat teams this season, as eight of nine starters got hits, [and] seven had multi-hit games,” said Jonathan Sheehan ’11.

Sonnenfeld walked away from the weekend with 10 hits in 18 at-bats, posting a .556 batting average to earn NESCAC Player of he Week honors. Most importantly, Sonnenfeld helped the team jump to second place in the NESCAC West division and improve its overall record to 8-8.

“We put ourselves in a great position to control our own destiny when it comes to making the NESCAC tournament,” said Michael Cifuentes ’10. 

This weekend, Wesleyan travels to Middlebury for three games, including a double-header on Sunday. 

“We can still get better in every facet of the game, and we hope to show that we have been working hard this week at practice when we head up to Middlebury,” said Alex Meadow ’12.