Slinger's Gem Leads Tufts Baseball to 5-0 Win Over Trinity in Series Opener

Matt Moser walked twice and scored for the Jumbos

MEDFORD - Junior Kyle Slinger pitched a two-hit shut out as the #18 Tufts baseball team opened a three-game weekend series against NESCAC East Division rival Trinity College with a 5-0 win Friday afternoon at Huskins Field.

The victory is the 10th in a row for the Jumbos, who improved to 18-1 overall and 2-0 in the NESCAC East. The Bantams dropped to 8-13 and 2-5.

Slinger is now 6-0 on the mound and lowered his earned run average to 0.66. He struck out seven, walked three and allowed just three Trinity base-runners to reach second. He got 10 outs on the ground. Trinity sophomore LF Mackenze Genauer led off the game with a walk, but Slinger picked him off.

Offensively, Tufts took advantage of seven walks and two hit-batters by Bantam pitchers. They scratched their first run across without a hit in the second. Junior RF James Howard was hit by a pitch with one out, moved to third on a pair of walks and scored on a grounder by freshman 2B Tom Petry.

Trinity freshman SS Nick DiBenedetto doubled with two outs in the third for the first Bantam in scoring position. Slinger left him there with a fly-ball out.

Starter Sean Meekins kept the margin at 1-0 for the Bantams into the fifth, but the Jumbos were able to score another in that frame. Junior CF Connor McDavitt led off with a single through the left side. He was sacrificed to second by junior LF Nick Barker, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out single up the middle by senior DH Max Freccia.

The Jumbos scored three in the sixth for some breathing room. Meekins walked the first three batters and was pulled. Reliever David O'Brien struck out McDavitt, but then walked Barker for a run. Junior 3B Wade Hauser followed with a two-run single up the middle for a 5-0 Tufts lead.

Trinity put runners on first and second in the seventh inning after a walk to junior 1B Brian Wolfe and a single by junior CF Scott Huley, but Slinger kept them off the board with a pop up. He recorded 1-2-3 innings in the eighth and ninth for the shutout.

Meekins dropped to 1-2 with the loss, allowing five runs on just three hits but with six walks in 5.1 innings. Freshman Chris Gallic was good out of the bullpen for Trinity, finishing the game with two no-hit, no-run innings including three K's.

The teams play a double-header at Huskins tomorrow starting at noon.

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