Wesleyan baseball failed to clinch a NESCAC tournament bid this weekend, dropping both halves of a doubleheader at Williams last Saturday. The third game of the series, scheduled to be played in Middletown on Sunday, was postponed due to rain and will be made up this Saturday.
The weekend got off to a good enough start for the Cards when leadoff batter Kyle Weiss ’12 worked a walk off of Williams’s starter Paul Burgdorf to start the first game. Weiss then advanced to third on a single from Julian Sonnenfeld ’11 and scored on an RBI groundout by Alex Meadow ’12. After Brice Kelly ’10 singled home Sonnenfeld, Joe Giaimo ’11 shot a double to opposite field to score Kelly and eventually came in himself as the Williams defense errantly threw the ball around the field.
After the four-run first inning, however, the Wesleyan bats went quiet, and the Cardinals failed to push another run across until the third inning of the second game. Burgdorf settled down and conceded just one more hit (to Meadow) over the rest of the seven-inning contest. Meanwhile, Williams batters succeeded where few of their predecessors have this year, catching up to hard-throwing Wesleyan starter Brett Yarusi ’12 for eleven hits and ten runs (six earned). Reliever Michael Cifuentes ’10 had better results, giving up one run of his own and as well as one of Yarusi’s in two innings of relief, but Burgdorf was dominant on the mound, and Williams cruised to a 11-4 victory.
“They had their best against our best, both teams were ready to play, and we just couldn’t step up and get the win,” said catcher Jeff Bizinkauskas ’10. “We didn’t do any one thing to lose the game, but Williams was also on top of their game: they didn’t make many errors, didn’t walk anyone, and really they just executed better.”
Like the first game on Saturday, the nightcap started out with promise for the Cardinals. Starting pitcher Mike Barsotti ’12 threw like the reigning NESCAC Pitcher of the Week he was through the first three innings, while third baseman Derek Dettorre ’11 singled home Sonnenfeld in the top of the third to give Wesleyan a 1-0 lead through three and a half.
Barsotti had given up only two runs in the previous two weeks in starts against Albertus Magnus and Hamilton, and appeared to be cruising through three innings. Unfortunately for the Cards, Williams sends out a significantly better lineup than either of those two schools, and eventually they reached the Wesleyan ace for three runs in the fourth inning, and two more in the fifth.
The Cards came roaring right back, scoring four runs in the top of the sixth thanks to big hits by Weiss and Chris Bonti ’13. With the score tied at five, Dettorre and Ryan Coffey ’11 led off the seventh with back-to-back singles. Batting next with runners on the corners, Kelly was able to push across the go-ahead run, though at the cost of grounding into a 4-6-3 double play.
Barsotti set the Ephs down in order to end the eighth, and after the Cards failed to score in bottom half of the frame, things got ugly for Wesleyan. Facing the heart of the Williams order, the Cardinals conceded a walk, a triple, a double, and two runs as the Ephs finally chased the Wesleyan starter from the game. Williams scored one more, as the Cards committed an error and uncorked two wild pitches before finally escaping the inning. Down two runs going into their last at-bat, the Cards managed to put Kelly and Bonti on base, but were unable to bring them home, and came out of Saturday’s nightcap with a 8-6 loss.
Both teams came into last weekend’s series with 7-2 NECAC West and 2-1 Little Three records, and by dropping two games to Williams, Wesleyan lost out on its chances at both titles.
“It’s disappointing because we lost the NESCAC West, but we have the opportunity to get Williams in the tournament,” Bizinkauskas said. “The next step for our program is beating good teams. We’re trying to establish ourselves as an elite program in the NESCAC, and to do that we have to knock off the top program in the division [Williams].”
The Cardinals will travel up to Springfield for a non-conference date with Westfield State College on Thursday, then return to Middletown to complete the season series against Williams before taking on Trinity on Sunday. With third-place Amherst only two games back from second-place Wesleyan, the Cards need to win at home over Williams in order to control their own tournament destiny.
“We’re in the stretch run now, we’re starting to see better teams,” Bizinkauskas said, referring to the upcoming weekend that includes not only Williams but a doubleheader against 16th-ranked Trinity. “A positive that we can take away from last weekend is that we now understand what it takes to be successful at the end of the season. It’s an elevated game, but we’re capable of being successful at that level.”
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