The baseball gods were smiling on Eastern Connecticut State this Wednesday. Down 16-14 heading into the eighth frame, the visiting Warriors scored four runs to secure a two-run lead just before the game was called due to darkness. Because the non-conference game was past the fifth inning, Eastern Connecticut, ranked fourth in New England and 17th in the nation in Division III, was given the victory after Wesleyan failed to score in the bottom of the eighth.

“They [Eastern] purposely took outs at the end to make sure the inning counted,” explained Wesleyan left fielder Julian Sonnenfeld ’11. “If the game had been called during the eighth, then the inning wouldn’t have counted, and we would have won.”
Early on, it didn’t appear that the dramatic ending would be in the cards for Wednesday’s contest. ECSU jumped on Cardinal pitching from the beginning, opening a 4-0 lead on Wesleyan before the hosts even got a chance to bat. With the Cards employing a pitcher-by-committee approach consisting of their rarely-used bullpen pitchers, Eastern Conn. slowly extended its lead to 12-6 through four and a half innings.

The Warriors also began the game with a collection of sophomores on the mound, however, and Wesleyan’s potent offense capitalized on this with a 10-run fifth inning. Up 16-12 going into the sixth inning, the Cards inserted weekend starter Derek Lukin ’13 to try to hold the lead. Unfortunately for Wesleyan, offense was the theme of Wednesday’s game, and the Warriors began to chip away at the deficit with two runs off of Lukin in the sixth.

Now with a senior on the hill, Eastern Conn. managed to blank the Wesleyan offense until the end of the contest. As the game time approached three hours, first baseman Joe Giaimo ’11, who earlier launched a tape-measure home run to the deepest part of spacious Andrus Field, came on to pitch in the top of the eighth with darkness jeopardizing the completion of the game. Facing the top of the Eastern Conn. order, Giaimo rolled two quick outs before the wheels came off. The Warriors reeled off five straight hits, sending four runners across the plate before shortstop Travis Bass purposely got picked off at third to end the inning.

The Cards, who have several comeback victories this year, came right back to put runners on second and third in their half of the inning. In a bizarre substitution, Mike Barsotti ’12, the incumbent NESCAC Pitcher of the Week, came in to pinch hit with two outs and Sonnenfeld and Alex Meadow ’12 in scoring position. Eastern Conn. closer Matt Fontaine managed to induce a fly ball to left field, which would ultimately prove to be the final out as the umpiring crew called the game at the end of the eighth for safety reasons.

The loss to the Warriors, though disappointing, doesn’t hurt Wesleyan’s chances of qualifying for the NESCAC tournament. The Cardinals face Williams this weekend to determine who will take first place in the NESCAC West. Both teams hold 7-2 divisional records, and the Cards would like to take at least two of three in order to avoid facing 19-3 Tufts in the first round of the conference tournament. The teams will play a doubleheader in Williamstown on Saturday and a single game on Andrus Field on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.