After a narrow 5-4 defeat on Friday, Wesleyan showed Hamilton what they were made of by winning back-to-back games in the Saturday doubleheader. Great pitching and heavy hitting saw the Cards shut out the Continentals 5-0 in the first match up, and wrapped up their road trip with a 6-2 victory in the second, leaving the baseball team with an overall record of 10-20-1. The squad sits in fourth place in the NESCAC West division, with a conference mark of 5-7.
The Cards got up early in their Friday game, putting together a 3-0 lead in the early innings. Unfortunately, Wesleyan did not give themselves quite enough room for error and Hamilton came back late in the game, tying the Cards at four runs a piece. In the bottom of the eighth, Hamilton got the last run they needed from off of a home run, producing the final 5-4 score. Despite the loss, Brian Mahr ’07 pitched a strong game other than the mistaken pitch in the eighth. The team got a runner on base in the ninth but could not convert.
“Unfortunately, the bus ride up to Hamilton is over four hours, and often times, it becomes difficult to step off the bus and be ready to play after such a long trip,” said Jeff Maier ’06. “On Saturday, our pitching and defense really showed up. Will Gordon shut down their offense, and anytime that your pitcher has his ”A“ game it can really spark the offense and defense to step up their game as well.”
Pitcher Will Gordon ’05 threw an outstanding game, shutting out the Continentals, tossing eight strikeouts and a giving up a mere two walks. Gordon showed a never-tiring arm, staying in and throwing hard all seven innings of the modified first game of the double-header. Allowing only three hits, Gordon pitched his first shutout as well as the first complete game of his career. In the second game, co-captain Tom Bloss ’05 had yet another exceptional game, throwing a career-high eleven strikeouts and completing his fifth complete game of the year.
“While the bats woke up on Saturday morning, the day was all about the pitching,” said Drew Nannini ’05. “Will pitched unbelievable, the few hits he gave up were weak. And although Bloss didn’t have his best stuff, he still got the job done, striking out eleven guys. No relief pitching needed in two games on Saturday.”
While the pitching staff continued to excel, offensively the Cards were far from slacking. Mac Clonan ’05 hit his first home run of the season and also had two RBI singles, while Maier sent off his fifth jack. Alexander Brooks ’06, who leads the team in homers, smacked his seventh of the season.
“Angus [Fredenburg ’04] and Maier continue to hit well, and we hit a bunch of homers on Saturday,” Nannini said. “Left field at Hamilton is close and high, kind of like the Green Monster at Fenway, but Brooks hit a moonshot, absolute bomb, would have been out no matter what.”
“We have been struggling with hitting the past week or so, these guys have been reliable fairly consistently and have helped lead our team to step it up. It’s nice to see both our offense and defense doing so well,” said Eric Wdowiak ’06.
Wesleyan has a tough week upcoming. First the Cards travel to Eastern Conn. on Wednesday, April 28. Then on Saturday Wes plays host to Trinity in a doubleheader, the team’s final home match-up of the season. Eastern Conn. is one of the top Division III teams in the country, while the Bantams control first place in the NESCAC East division, with a 10-2 conference record (26-5 overall), and have scored more than twice as many runs as their opponents this season. Saturday’s match-up with Trinity will be the last home game for co-captain Fredenburg, the only senior on the team.
That will finish the season for the Cards, unless Amherst takes two out of three from Middlebury this weekend, which would leave both the Lord Jeffs and Panthers tied with the Cardinals with a 5-7 conference record. A tiebreaker would then be needed, which could possibly sneak Wes into the post-season. Williams has already grabbed the top spot in the West division.
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