After what seemed to be an endless winter, the Cardinals baseball team had no trouble warming up to the hot Arizona heat, as it posted an impressive 5-0 start and finished its 15-day stint with a 9-7 record to begin the 2011 season.

In their first contest of the year, the Cardinals faced a 13-8 deficit heading into the 7th inning of the first game with Southern Vermont. Behind the bats of Julian Sonnenfeld ’11 and Joe Giaimo ’11, who hit a game-winning grand slam to cap off an eight-run inning, the Cardinals battled back and secured a 16-13 victory.  The teams returned later that evening to complete the sweep of Southern Vermont, who were held to only one run on four hits in a combined effort of pitchers Jeff Blout ’14, Michael Migiel-Schwartz ’14, and Jimmy Hill ’14, with a final score of 10-1.

The following day the Cardinals completed another sweep, this time over Presentation College, combining for 30 runs and holding the opponent to just four. Kyle Weiss ’12 led the offense with six hits and three RBI and Alex Meadow ’12 recorded his 100th career hit, while James Hounsell ’11 and Chase Levi ’14 earned the wins.  Wesleyan continued to roll as Weiss drove in four to down St. Mary’s 17-4 one day later.

After suffering a pair of losses to The College of New Jersey and Concordia-Chicago, the Cards traveled to Goodyear, Ariz. to take on Pitt-Bradford in a double header after a needed day off. Chris Bonti ’13 found his groove early on and finished the game with a pair of three-run homers, while Brett Yarusi ’12 struck out nine in five innings of play, as the Cardinals took the first game 15-8. The Cardinal battled in game two, but the Panthers’ pitching finished strong and edged the Cards 9-7.

In the first of back-to-back double-headers with Mayville St., the Cardinals were slow to start, going down four runs early and starting the sixth inning down 7-1.  The team rallied for five runs in the bottom of the inning in what looked to be a late-game comeback, but after allowing another run in the top of the 7th, the team folded and lost 8-6. The second game was equally difficult against the strong Mayville St. side, as the Cardinals jumped out to an early 3-0 lead but could not hold on as the Comets scored three in the 4th and added two more in the 5th to complete the sweep of the first double-header.

The Cardinals (6-5) returned to the diamond the next day for the second double-header with hopes of leveling the score with the Comets (5-1).  The Cards battled back from an 8-5 deficit to regain the lead in the bottom of the 6th, and allowed a run in the top of the 7th and needed extra innings to secure their victory.  After shutting the Comets out in the top of the 8th inning, the Cardinals managed to load the bases following a Ryan Coffey ’11 single, a Giaimo double, and a David Skura ’12 walk.  Jon Sheehan ’11 stepped to the plate and singled to left to bring Skura in for the winning run.

Later in the evening, it was Sheehan again driving in the winning run as the Cardinals completed the sweep of Mayville St., 7-5.  In 3.2 innings of work, reliever Blout struck out five of the last seven batters he faced to earn the victory.  The Cardinals extended their winning streak to three games with a monstrous 13-1 victory over Macalester College, as Weiss and Sonnenfeld each went 3-4 at the plate and Yarusi delivered another solid performance from the mound, improving to 2-0 and registering his first complete game of the season. The streak was short-lived, however, as the Scots bounced back later on that day to earn a 16-3 victory.

The Cardinals went down early in the final contest of their trip, giving up five runs to Concordia University Wisconsin in the first inning of play.  Justin Freres ’11 and Meadow led the team on a mid-game surge and took a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the 4th before Concordia evened the score in the 5th and scored an unearned run in the top of the 9th to secure an 8-7 victory.

“The trip had its ups and downs,” explained Tom Miceli ’12, who, along with Dan Thomsen ’12, sported a Wade Boggs-like mustache, “as a testament to [his] will power and devotion to the team. We grew a lot, especially as a team, and hope to bring that experience with us back east and build on it.”

The Cardinals return to action this week with two games before opening the NESCAC season with a weekend series against Hamilton on Friday, April 1 and Saturday, April 2.