After suffering a tough loss in game one of this past weekend’s three-game series against the Hamilton Continentals, the Cardinals combined for 38 runs behind the bats of Joey Giaimo ’11 and tri-captain Julian Sonnenfeld ’11 to earn their first two wins of the NESCAC schedule and improve to 12-9 on the season. In his first career start in Cardinal uniform, Jimmy Hill ’14 allowed just three hits and struck out five in six scoreless innings of work to pick up his third win of the season.
In the opening contest of Saturday’s double-header, the Cards found themselves in a pitching battle over the first five innings of play. With the score level at 2-2 to begin the sixth, the Cards struggled for over thirty minutes to retire the Hamilton batters, who rallied for nine runs on three different Wesleyan pitchers. The lead held as the Cardinals dropped the first game of the series, 12-4.
“I think that with how talented of a team we know we are, we place these lofty expectations on ourselves,” said Giaimo. “We end up pressing and playing inside our heads instead of just playing relaxed. We were disappointed in the outcome.”
Game two saw the veteran Cardinal side come alive, as the team held the Continentals to just five runs while scoring fourteen of their own to capture its first NESCAC victory of the year. Alex Meadow ’12 started the scoring early with a two-run homer to left field, and drove in two more on a single in the fourth to spark the offense. Sonnenfeld finished the game with four RBIs, including his 11th double of the season and a two-run triple in the seventh. Mike Barsotti ’12 struck out six batters over seven innings of play to earn his second win, and Giaimo allowed just one run on one hit in the final two innings to preserve the victory.
“We knew what to expect going into this weekend series,” Sonnenfeld said after the important win in game two. “Because of their tendencies, I knew what they would be throwing in different situations. It was because of a great week of practice and our focus on those little things that we were able to come out swinging the bats so well.”
The onslaught persisted into game three, as the team did not take its foot off the gas pedal for a second and scored more than four runs in five of the nine innings of the game. Giaimo led the Wesleyan batters on the day, finishing 5-for-6 with four doubles and five RBIs in addition to impressive play in the field. Justin Freres ’11 and Stefan Sundseth ’13, along with Sonnenfeld, each provided three RBIs, while Meadow, Kyle Weiss ’12, and Chris Bonti ’13 each drove in two. A solid start from Hill paired with the relief of Glenn Stowell ’13, Jeff Blout ’14 and Bonti helped the Cardinals hold on to the shutout and cruise to a 24-0 win.
“Two out of three is always disappointing,” Barsotti explained, “but the team showed unbelievable character coming back from a tough loss to win big twice.”
The Cardinals are back in action today for a game against Elms College, and look to improve their NESCAC record at home this weekend for a doubleheader against Williams.