The baseball team (23-8, 10-2 NESCAC) was defeated by MIT (20-12) in a close one, 3-2, on Tuesday, April 29 in Cambridge, Mass. It was Wesleyan’s second consecutive loss; the team had only lost back-to-back games once before this season, on March 17 during its spring break trip in Arizona and California.
The game was a pitchers’ duel, with Peter Rantz ’16 (2-1, 3.04 ERA) toeing the rubber for the Cardinals. Rantz had filthy stuff on the mound, but struggled to get run support from the Wesleyan bats. The sophomore right-hander threw six innings of two-hit, two-run ball, while walking only one and striking out a season-high 12 batters. Rantz’ previous season high in strikeouts was two.
Wes and MIT cruised through the first five innings, trading zeroes on the scoreboard. Wesleyan’s offense was the first to break through, in the top half of the sixth. Jonathan Dennett ’15 hit a two-out RBI double to right center to score Donnie Cimino ’15, who had led off the inning with a single, from first to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
Rantz was cruising right along and had a no-hitter threw six innings, but then the wheels fell off in the bottom of the seventh. The first MIT batter he faced in the inning homered to right field. And just like that, Rantz lost the no-hitter, the shutout, and the lead all in one swing. The home run seemed to rattle Rantz, as he followed that by giving up a walk, a wild pitch, and an RBI double. MIT took a 2-1 lead and knocked Rantz out of the game.
Chris Law ’14 (2-1, 3.12 ERA) was summoned from the bullpen and made quick work of the Engineers, inducing two fly outs and a foul out to squelch the rally.
Wesleyan displayed its resiliency in the top half of the eighth, plating a run to knot the score up at 2-2. With two outs, Sam Goodwin-Boyd ’15 started the rally by doubling to right. After Robby Harbison ’17 was hit by a pitch, Dennett came to the plate and did more damage, singling home Goodwin-Boyd for his second RBI of the game.
Dennett seemed to be one of the few Cardinals to figure out MIT’s pitching.
“He had a really good change up and command of it,” Dennett wrote in an email to The Argus. “He got ahead of batters and left us battling late in counts. We hit a lot of balls hard just right at people. It was one of those days.”
The Cardinals’ defense has been dependable all season, but it let them down in this one in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs and two runners on, a Goodwin-Boyd fielding error at first allowed an unearned run to score and gave MIT a late 3-2 lead.
Wesleyan went down quietly in the top of the ninth, going down in order, as MIT handed the Cards their second loss in as many games.
“We have to sharpen up defensively, especially in the seventh, eighth, and ninth,” Dennett wrote. “We had this problem in Arizona and we were able to fix it and go on a 12-game winning streak when we came back north. We fixed it once. We can do it again and plan on going on another 12-game winning streak.”
Head Coach Mark Woodworth didn’t seem overly concerned by his team’s second-straight loss.
“Tough one today,” Woodworth wrote in an email to The Argus. “It was freezing cold and windy. Our entire pitching staff has been fantastic, and we’ll get ready for Trinity.”
Wesleyan will face off against Trinity (15-16, 4-8 NESCAC) at home with a doubleheader on Saturday, May 3 in its final conference tune-up before the NESCAC tournament.
Losing hasn’t been a familiar result for these 2014 Cardinals, and they don’t plan on making a habit of it.
“MIT was the last loss of our season,” Dennett wrote.