It was a tough week for the Cardinals as the men’s baseball team pulled in just one win out of five games. Despite this fact, the Cards managed to post a 6-0 shutout in Saturday’s second game against Tufts, the only shutout by either team in the series. Wednesday, Wes met Western New England College and lost a tough game, leaving the Cards with a record of 6-12-1.
Playing in back-to-back double headers this past weekend against Tufts, the Cards saw many ups and downs.
But when they were on, it showed. In game one, Tufts started off very strong with the big hits that make the Jumbos notorious in the NESCAC. They also had five standing strikeouts on Wes, forcing the Cardinals to take a look at their playing.
Tufts jumped out to a commanding lead 9-4 in the 5th inning, but the Cards were not about to go down without a fight. Wes came back in the 7th inning with four runs and came up just short of a tie. After the Cards saw victory just out of reach, they were hungry for it in game two.
“We talked as a team and decided to go for the comeback, even if we couldn’t pull it off, the momentum would be there for game two,” said outfielder John Delgiudice ’07.
Both of Saturday’s games saw individual highlights on both offense and defense. Jeff Maier ’06 smashed a homerun in each game on his first at bat, while Tom Bloss ’06 made pitching look easy as he dominated from the mound in game two. Emerging as a possible MVP for the Cards, Bloss pitched another outstanding game, allowing only two hits and throwing his second shutout of the season. In fact, Cardinal defense was so outstanding in the second game that no Tufts runner reached third base in the entire game.
Coach Mark Woodworth had nothing but compliments for Bloss’s pitching.
“Tom’s performance this weekend stood out because he was fearless in pitching against Tufts. He really embraces the competition and the results speak for themselves.”
When the team returned to Middletown on a cold, gloomy Sunday, their performance seemed to mirror the weather. Although the margin of victory wasn’t large for Tufts, Wesleyan felt they didn’t live up to their full team potential.
The Cards did do a few things well, however. They were hitting with power and getting on base, but not in an order that would earn the team runs. Will Gordon ’05 pitched an excellent game and really inspired his teammates with his dedication.
“Will Gordon played great on Sunday. He picked us up all game long, but we just couldn’t string any hits together. We hit the Tufts pitcher hard, and with 8 hits we should have been able to come up with more than 2 runs. We just didn’t get the job done at the right time,” said outfielder Rob Coughlin ’07.
Wednesday’s game against Western New England saw a few more errors than Wesleyan is used to. The Cards came out strong this time with an early run and their first few runners getting on base, Jason Vitko ’05 went 3-4, going 1/3 on the team’s hits, but defensively the team struggled. Plays weren’t being made as they should, balls were dropped, and the team racked up four errors; too many to expect good results. WNEC got up 9-1 midway through the game, leaving the Cardinals trailing for the remainder of the contest.
Wesleyan was not disheartened by this past week; on the contrary, the games have inspired the teams to recognize exactly what has been working, and what has been going wrong so that the rest of the season will go their way.
“I think we’re going to be a great team in this league once everyone starts clicking and playing to their full potential; we’re going to come out strong and keep up the pace. We have a lot of freshmen so it’s a matter of getting comfortable but the chemistry is there for a great team,” said Delgiudice.
“As a team, we are working on playing without fear and letting go. If we can do that, we can play great against anybody,” Woodworth said.
“Will Gordon pitched real well in the first game, but we couldn’t seem to get that big hit when we needed it. Much of the same in the second game, as our pitchers only allowed 2 hits, but again we had problems getting those timely hits. Yesterday we took a tough loss to WNEC 10-4. Were in a bit of a funk right now, but I know we’ll come out to play against Williams tomorrow, as it’s for the little three championship and will have huge playoff implications,” said infielder Alex Mautone ’07.
The Cards are scheduled to play Williams College today at 4 p.m.
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