The Cardinals endured their second rough weekend in a row, blowing four-run and eight-run leads on consecutive days to Williams and Trinity. Luckily for Wesleyan, none of the weekend’s games had NESCAC tournament implications, as Amherst was dropped from contention by Middlebury earlier in the week.
Having backed into the conference tournament for the second year in a row, the Cardinals were playing mainly for bragging rights this weekend in their quest to establish Wesleyan baseball as a top program in New England.
Saturday’s game against Williams appeared to be going according to plan for the Cards, when, in the bottom of the fifth, with both pitchers tossing one-run games, Wesleyan pushed across four runs thanks to big hits by Brice Kelly ’10 and Nick Gonsalves ’10. But this game would prove to be another high-scoring affair, in keeping with recent history. The two teams, which don’t do pitchers’ duels, combined for 50 runs in last year’s series, and had already put up 29 in the previous week’s doubleheader in Massachusetts.
“We took that four-run lead in the fifth, and I thought we had the game in hand,” said starting pitcher Mike Barsotti ’12. “But then [Williams center fielder Stephen] Maier pulled a bases-loaded double down the line after a tough two-strike at bat, and that really took the wind out of our sails.”
The Ephs continued to pour it on after Maier’s big hit, scoring seven in the top of the sixth before Joe Giaimo ’11 was finally able to pitch the Cards out of the inning. The floodgates stayed open for both teams, as the Cards and the Ephs combined for 21 hits and 21 runs in the second half of the game. Unfortunately for Wesleyan, Williams was responsible for the majority of both statistics, and the Ephs completed the series sweep with a 14-9 victory.
“Williams was really frustrating; you hate getting swept,” Kelly said. “But to turn around and put up runs against Trinity and get the win was great,” he said, referring to Sunday’s opener against Trinity which saw a return to dominance by pitcher Brett Yarusi ’12. The sophomore shut out Trinity, ranked 25th in the nation, to cap off a 7-2 regular season that included five complete game victories and a stunning ten extra-base hits in 55 innings pitched.
“Yarusi threw really really well: he pitched out of jams, rolled ground balls, and was always around the zone,” Kelly said, who was primarily a spectator from right field as Yarusi allowed only nine balls to leave the infield. “Last start against Williams, they had a lot of two-strike hits. When he got two strikes this weekend, he finished them off.”
The Cards only needed one run to knock off Trinity in the first game, which they got in a three-run first inning. Wesleyan added five more through the next five innings as juniors Giaimo and Julian Sonnenfeld each went 3-for-4 while Kyle Weiss ’12 and Kelly added two hits apiece as Wesleyan shut out Trinity for the first time since 1984, a span of 54 games.
Wesleyan bats stayed hot to start the nightcap, chasing Trinity starter sophomore James Ramsey from the game before he could escape the first inning. Up 12-6 going into the seventh, Wesleyan looked to be cruising toward its first series sweep of Trinity since 2006 when they simply imploded. The Bantams reeled off three straight doubles and a single to begin a three-run seventh inning, then followed with four runs in the eighth and five in the ninth to stun the Cardinals, who finished the weekend 1-2 despite scoring 29 runs in their three games.
“It’s too bad about the second game [against Trinity], ” Kelly, who recently settled into the clean-up spot in the Wesleyan order and collected an impressive nine RBI this weekend, said. “We had a few tough innings, a few ground balls that just got through the infield. However, we definitely ended the season playing the way we wanted to, and I think we just have some little things we want to work on.”
Kelly, who already holds the career record for runs batted in, eclipsed the single-season mark of 49 on Saturday with, of all things, a bases-loaded walk.
“I didn’t realize I was close to the RBI thing, but its cool to be in the record books,” Kelly said. “However, I don’t get RBIs if guys in front of me don’t get on base. It’s just a reflection of good team hitting, really.”
The Cardinals head to Medford this Friday to start off their conference tournament against NESCAC East champion Tufts. The Jumbos knocked the Cards out of the NESCAC tournament last year on their way to a second-place finish in the competition.
“They [Tufts] have very good pitching; they’re a scrappy team,” Barsotti said. “They move runners well, which allows them to manufacture runs, and they only need a few runs with their pitching.”
Barsotti will likely get the nod on Friday as the Cardinals begin their quest for their first NESCAC title. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
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