The Wesleyan men’s baseball team kicked off NESCAC competition with Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders against the Jumbos from Tufts. The Cardinals lost the pair of Saturday’s home games and split Sunday’s contests played in Medford, MA.
Coming into Saturday’s games, the Cardinals expected big things from ace Tom Bloss ’05. Bloss threw an impressive game, striking out twelve batters with only three walks in seven innings during the first game. Despite a dominating performance on the mound, the game was pushed into extra innings because Wesleyan’s defense could not stop Tufts, committing five errors in contrast to Tufts’ error-free defense.
Entering the bottom of the seventh inning trailing by a run, the Cardinals faced Tufts’ Aaron Narva, who had yet to yield an earned run on the season. Anthony Gray ’06 started the inning with a leadoff walk and stole second base, leaving the rest up to offensive leader Jason Vitko ’05. Vitko went after Narva right away, driving in Gray with a double to centerfield that knotted the game at five.
In the eighth inning, Charlie Munzig ’07, who witnessed two untimely errors en-route to Tufts scoring three runs, relieved Bloss. Despite dropping the contest 8-5, only three runs in the game were earned runs, a good sign for a pitching staff whose efficacy was doubted earlier.
Andre Sternberg ’07 further proved the pitching staff’s ability to win as he pitched a complete game allowing only two earned runs in the second game, a 5-1 loss. The three errors committed in the second game added to the defensive worries of the team, and Cardinal bats were much quieter in the second contest Saturday, with Adam Kopiec ’07 getting the only hit and lone RBI of the game in the fifth inning.
Looking to salvage a win from the series, the Cardinals headed to Medford to take on the Jumbos at their home field. Continuing the strong showing by the Cardinal pitching staff, Will Gordon ’05 had a dazzling performance, allowing only three hits in the Cardinals 3-1 victory. Gordon also saw much better defense, with only one error committed in the game. Wesleyan bats also woke up, getting ten hits. Chris Waelsch ’07, Jason Vitko ’05, and Jeff Maier ’06 each had two hits in the contest.
“We got a tremendous pitching performance from Will Gordon in the first game against Tufts yesterday,” Maier said. “He really stepped it up a level.”
Mac Clonan ’05, who scored Wesleyan’s first run of the game, broke a 1-1 deadlock with a two-run single with two outs in the fifth inning, driving in Vitko and Maier. The 3-1 score held up for the Red and Black.
The fourth game between the two teams saw six Wesleyan pitchers and twelve position players, as Tufts put the game out of reach early. In the first inning, the Jumbos put up ten runs, all unearned, on seven hits and four Wesleyan errors, sending 14 batters to the plate. In the end, Tufts put up an impressive 16 hits on the way to a 17-0 Jumbos victory.
Only two weeks removed from their spring trip, the Cardinals have already disproved many of their earlier critics. The pitching staff seems to have solidified behind the performances of Bloss, Gordon and Sternberg, and several timely hits have come, notably in the first game of each doubleheader against Tufts. The big question mark for the Cardinals at this point is their defense. Over the course of the four game home-and-away series, the men committed twelve errors. With a team fielding percentage of .917, the defense, often a strong point, has been weak, but with 13 league games remaining in the season, the team remains confident that the defense will solidify.
Next up for the Cardinals (1-3 NESCAC) is a Thursday home match up with Coast Guard at 3:30 p.m. This Saturday, the Cardinals will also play at home, facing a tough Williams team in a doubleheader at 1 p.m.
“The pitching has been coming around, but we have to work a lot harder on our defense as well as being aggressive at the plate,” Vitko said. “Once we do that we will scare a lot of teams out there, including Williams. We’ll be ready.”
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