In the latest installment of the oldest baseball rivalry in collegiate baseball, Wesleyan ventured into the heart of New Haven and took a thrilling extra-innings victory over the Yale Bulldogs. The highly anticipated game on Saturday was the second of the year, following a 7-3 Yale victory in the spring, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the initial game between the Agallian Baseball Club (Wesleyan’s club team at the time) and the Yale Nine.
Throwback uniforms and speeches from legendary alumni from Wesleyan and Yale baseball set the stage. Wesleyan’s Jim Dresser ’63, of the Dresser Diamond on Andrus Field, threw out the ceremonial first pitch after a speech about the history of the program. His connection runs deeper than his playing days, because it was in fact his great-grandfather, James Cooke van Benschoten, a Wesleyan Classics professor, who named the original Wesleyan baseball team the Agallians.
Before the fireworks began, one other notable attendee, former Major League Baseball commissioner (1989-1992) and Yale Law School graduate Fay Vincent had a story to share. When Vincent was just a fourth grader at the Hotchkiss School in Salisbury, Conn., his father—a former Yale athlete—brought him to the New Haven Library where Babe Ruth had come to get his autobiography restored. Vincent recalled how mesmerizing it had been to take a day off of school and catch a glimpse of the great Babe Ruth just two months before he passed away from throat cancer. Between the sharing of baseball folklore and the generations of Wesleyan and Yale baseball alumni in attendance, the stage was thoroughly set for a game worthy of the historic rivalry.
Despite the nature of the game, both teams were playing simply to set their seasons off in the right direction. For Wesleyan, coming off one of the program’s most successful years on record—which included the Little Three championship, the NESCAC championship, and a birth in the NCAA championship tournament—this game was a chance to set the tone for another successful campaign.
“While the history and atmosphere were special, we entered the game with one goal: to beat Yale,” said captain Guy Davidson ’16. “We knew going in that we had the talent to beat them, but actually doing it was an incredible experience.”
With strong play from the full depth of the roster (twenty-three players took part), the Cardinals showed strength both offensively and defensively. The team was particularly effective with runners in scoring position, managing to score six times on only seven hits. Though ace Peter Rantz ’16 was given the ball for the first inning, Coach Mark Woodworth wanted to give his entire staff a chance to work, which opened the door for some newcomers.
Dan Lombard ’19 told The Argus about his first experience on the mound for Wesleyan.
“It was a little nerve wracking at first, in front of all those people, pitching in such an anticipated game,” Lombardo said. ”However, once I settled in, it was smooth sailing. The atmosphere was unreal. We had a ton of alumni and fans there to watch us ultimately come away with a win. It couldn’t have been a better first collegiate game.”
This was all the more impressive because Yale kept their starting nine in for the majority of the game, pushing to keep an undefeated streak alive.
That said, strong baseball through the first nine innings was not enough to secure an easy win for the Cardinals. Playing against a team of Yale’s caliber, some late-game heroics were required to pull out the victory.
Dylan Millhouse ’18 came in as a relief pitcher in the eighth inning and showed his value with a clutch performance on the mound and at the plate. With the bases loaded and only one out in the bottom of the ninth, Millhouse gave the infielders exactly what they needed, forcing a ground ball which was turned into an easy 6-4-3 double play to send the game into extra-innings. This was the second double play the team had turned in as many innings.
After second baseman AJ Ferrara ’18 laid down a suicide squeeze bunt, giving the Cardinals a 4-3 lead in the 10th, Millhouse then came to the plate and scorched a two-RBI triple into deep right field for adding insurance to the Redbirds’ advantage.
The team showed that the legacy of Wesleyan baseball was placed in the right hands, and that the rivalry against Yale is not as one-sided now as it has historically been.
“Being a part of the history of a great university and great athletic tradition is amazing because it is inspiring for the future,” said head coach Mark Woodworth. “In the Yale game on Saturday night, our guys lived up to the standard of excellence that has been an integral part of Wesleyan both in the past and in the present.”
Davidson is already looking toward the greater challenges that await the team.
“Beating Yale was an incredible experience,” he said. “But it has actually inspired us to work harder as it was just a taste of what we can accomplish in the spring.”
With the momentum of a landmark win so early in the year, the baseball team could not be better positioned in advance of their 2016 campaign.