Box Score Recap courtesy of Trinity College
HARTFORD – The Tufts baseball team scored five runs in the first two innings of game one, including a two-run double by junior SS Matt Moser, leading to a 6-4 victory and a split in a NESCAC East Division double-header at Trinity College on Saturday.
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| Bryan Egan had three hits and two rbis in the Jumbos' game-one win |
Trinity junior catcher Scott Cullinane finished 3 for 8 for the day, including the game-winning, three-run double with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, to help Trinity down the visiting Jumbos, 7-6, and salvage the split in game two.
Trinity moves to 10-8 overall and 2-3 in the NESCAC East, ending a three-game losing skid while snapping Tufts' seven-game winning streak. The Jumbos are now 16-5 overall and 3-2 in the division.
The games were the first played this season at Trinity's on-campus field, and the teams will finish the three-game set tomorrow at noon.
Trinity trailed, 6-3, in the second game after Tufts scored a pair of unearned runs in the top of the sixth inning thanks to a two-run single by sophomore 2B Tom Petry. The Bantams got one back in the bottom of the sixth on a solo homer by first-year OF Brendan Pierce, and solid relief by Trinity's Daniel Pidgeon, Sam Jordan, and Nicholas Fusco allowed the home team to take its first lead in either game on Cullinane's clutch double in the eighth.
Pidgeon came in for senior tri-captain starter Sean Meekins, who allowed eight hits and three earned runs with six strikeouts and two walks over 6.1 innings. With two runners on in the seventh, Pidgeon yielded two fly outs to end the Jumbo threat. Jordan allowed an rbi single by Tufts sophomore Harry Brown in relief of Pidgeon in the eighth frame, but retired the last out with a runner on third, and Fusco recorded the final three outs with a runner on first base to save the game for Jordan who improved to 3-0.
In the Trinity eighth inning they started things off with back-to-back free passes, a sacrifice bunt by rookie 3B Tyler Forgione and a walk by sophomore SS Nicholas DiBenedetto to load the bases. Cullinane, who was hitless in his first three at-bats but had gone 2 for 3 in game one, smacked a double off Tufts rookie reliever Zach Brown, who had earned his third save in the first game, and DiBenedetto beat the relay to score the game-winning run from first.
Jordan gave up a lead-off single to Jumbo senior catcher Bryan Egan in the ninth inning, but Fusco came in and induced a fly ball and a pop-double play.
In the first game, Tufts built a 5-1 lead after two innings on a two-out, two-run double by Moser in the first, and an rbi single by senior OF Connor McDavitt along with a two-run single by Egan in the second.
Trinity scored its first run in the bottom of the first frame on an rbi single by Wolfe. Tufts scored once in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by senior James Howard, but Trinity rallied in the sixth inning with a two-out, three-run homer by rookie OF Ryan Vultaggio to pull within two runs at 6-4 with one inning left.
Bantam junior reliever Dylan Callahan and Jordan pitched out of trouble in the top of the seventh, and Wolfe and Pierce both walked in the bottom of the inning before Brown recorded the final two outs on a strikeout and a swinging bunt recorded catcher to first.
Sophomore starter Tim Superko earned the win in the first game to improve to 4-2, scattering nine hits and allowing three earned runs with five K's and two walks over 5.2 innings, while junior LHP Jed Robinson took the loss for Trinity.
Egan finished 3 for 4 with a run and two rbis for Tufts, while Cullinane and rookie Matt Toth had two hits apiece for the Bantams. Toth and Pierce both had a pair of hits in the nightcap, while Pierce also scored three times, and Vultaggio delivered a two-out, two-run single in the second inning to total five rbis for the afternoon.
Egan, 2 for 3 in game two to finish 5 for 7 for the day, was one of four Jumbos with two hits in the second contest. Callahan worked 2.1 scoreless innings for the Bantams in the first game, and junior starter Andrew David allowed six runs, but none earned over five innings in the second game.
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