The Cardinal baseball squad traveled to West Haven on Friday for a doubleheader against Albertus Magnus, the teams’ first meeting since 2002. Led by the 6-for-10 efforts of Alex Meadow ’12 and Julian Sonnenfeld ’11 and the strong arms of Mike Barsotti ’12 and Brett Yarusi ’12, Wesleyan swept the doubleheader by a combined score of 38-1, taking the first game by a 12-0 count and recording a five-inning 26-1 victory in the nightcap. The team now stands 21-7 on the year—crossing the 20-win mark for the first time since 2002—heading into Wednesday’s showdown with Eastern Connecticut.

Albertus found itself down 1-0 in the first game before it even came to bat, as a single by Meadow scored Kyle Weiss ’12, who had led off with a double to right. The score remained the same until the fifth, when Wesleyan made it 2-0. Chris Bonti ’13 led off with a double to left-center and advanced to third on a wild pitch, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Jon Sheehan ’11.

Meanwhile, the Falcons threatened but were grounded by Barsotti, who was named NESCAC Pticher of the Week on Monday. Albertus had runners on second and third with two outs in the first, but Barsotti fanned the Falcons’ DH to avert the threat. Albertus also left two runners on in the second and one each in the fourth and fifth.

The floodgates opened in the top of the sixth. Sonnenfeld clobbered a home run to lead off the inning, and two batters later, Ryan Coffey ’11 did the same to make it 4-0. After a single by Brice Kelly ’10, Joe Giaimo ’11 launched the Cardinals’ third round-tripper of the inning to make it 6-0. The Cardinals used a barrage of singles to continue to pad the lead, and when all was said and done, the score stood at 11-0 in Wesleyan’s favor.

After a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning, Barsotti retired the next three batters in order on a pair of fly balls and a strikeout, his eighth of the game. He has now struck out 65 batters in 47.1 innings of work, just 14 shy of the Wesleyan single-season record. With two weeks left in the regular season and the Cardinals a virtual lock to make the NESCAC tournament, Barsotti, who has not struck out fewer than five batters in a start this season, likely has at least three starts remaining this year.

Wesleyan doubled its pleasure in the first inning of game 2, plating a pair of runs that would turn out to be all it needed. Weiss led off with a walk, then stole second and advanced to third when the catcher’s throw sailed into center field. Weiss scored on a double by Meadow, who made it another 90 feet on an infield single by Coffey and scored on a fielder’s choice by Kelly.

After a 1-2-3 bottom of the first, Wesleyan added six more runs to its total in the second, using timely hitting and taking advantage of two Albertus errors in the rain. The Falcons would get one back in the bottom of the inning on a Wesleyan error and bases-loaded walk, but Wesleyan tacked on eight more in the third for a commanding 16-1 lead. The Cardinals made it 22-1 in the fourth and 26-1 after five before the game was called due to rain after the fifth.

Yarusi went four innings on the mound, allowing two hits and walking one and surrendering only the unearned run in raising his record to 6-1. Glenn Stowell ’13 threw the final inning for the Cardinals.

Leading the offensive onslaught for Wesleyan was Sonnenfeld, who finished 6-for-10 with five runs scored and six RBI; Meadow also went 6-for-10, crossing the plate five times and driving in five more. Kelly went 4-for-8 over the two games with two runs and six RBI, all of which game in the second game. Weiss reached base seven times in eight plate appearances, with three hits and four walks, and scored five times; defensive replacement Justin Freres ’11, who entered the second game as a pinch runner, walked twice and scored three runs. Bonti went 4-for-7, scoring three times and driving in another, and Sheehan went 2-for-5 with two walks, three RBI, and four runs scored. Noah Feingold ’12, in just his second at-bat of the year, delivered a pinch-hit single and came around to score on a single by Sonnenfeld. As a team, Wesleyan batted .479 (34-for-71) in the twinbill.

Wesleyan now boasts three of the top five NESCAC hit-getters: Meadow (NESCAC-leading 49), Sonnenfeld (44), and Kelly (39). Sonnenfeld (40), Weiss (39), and Meadow (34) also rank 1-2-3 in the conference in runs, and Sonnenfeld ranks first in doubles with a program-record 21 and is tied for first in home runs with eight, one shy of the single-season school record. On the mound, Barsotti’s 65 strikeouts are tops in the conference, with Yarusi’s 35 ranking third.

The offensive onslaught represented a sharp reversal from the team’s previous game, a 10-3 loss to Springfield College on Wednesday in which the Cardinals mustered only seven hits (two each from Meadow and Kelly). Wesleyan had taken a 19-3 victory over the Pride in 2009, but the Cardinals’ bats went silent as Springfield improved to 61-32 all-time against Wesleyan.

Next up for Wesleyan is Wednesday’s game against perennial power Eastern Connecticut, with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. on Andrus Field.