Box Score NASHUA, NH – In a good back-and-forth first game of the NESCAC Baseball Championship, Tufts advanced in the winners' bracket with a 5-4 win over Amherst on Friday at historic Holman Stadium.
The Jumbos move on to game four of the tournament on Saturday at 2 pm. They will play the winner of Friday's Wesleyan versus Trinity opening-round game which is scheduled for a 7 pm start.
The victory is the 30th of the season for Tufts (30-6), the third time in team history they have reached that milestone.
Amherst (24-12) drops into the loser's bracket and will play either Wesleyan or Trinity in game three on Saturday at 10 am.
The Jumbos scored in the bottom of the first inning when lead-off man Cody McCallum walked, was sacrificed to second by Harry Brown, and scored on a single to left by Matt Moser.
Amherst evened it up at 1-1 after two were out in the top of the second. Dave Cunningham led off with a walk and took second on a ground ball. He scored on a close play at the plate following a single to center by Max Steinhorn. Jumbo starter Speros Varinos picked Steinhorn off first base to end the inning.
Tufts manufactured a run to go ahead 2-1 in the third. McCallum reached on an error, went to second on a passed ball, took third on Brown's bunt single, and then scored on a wild pitch.
Amherst answered with two runs in the fourth inning to lead 3-2 as Conner Gunn hit a two-run home run down the right-field line. Anthony Spina, who had been hit by a pitch and stole second, scored in front of him. The Purple & White would add a run in the fifth as Steinhorn led off with a single, was sacrificed to second by Joe Feldman, advanced to third on a ground out, and scored on Yanni Thanopoulos' two-out single making it 4-2.
Neither starter lasted past the fifth. Amherst's Jackson Volle went four innings allowing four hits and two runs, while Tufts' Varinos pitched five innings giving up four hits and four runs.
Tufts would take advantage of the Amherst bullpen. Moser hit a two-run home run to left-center tying the score. McCallum scored his third run of the game on the dinger after hitting a lead-off single. The Jumbos then took the lead with a run in the seventh as Brown singled, stole second on a pick-off attempt at first, and came around on Tommy O'Hara's base hit to score the eventual game-winning run.
In the Amherst eighth, Thanapoulos drove a ball to deep left-center field that McCallum tracked down at the base of the wall to preserve the one-run lead.
The Jumbos received strong relief from Ian Kinney and Andrew David. Kinney allowed just two hits in three scoreless innings to earn the win. David pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.
Tufts had seven hits, five runs, and four rbis from the top four spots in the batting order. McCallum finished 1 for 4 with three runs, Brown was 2 for 4 with a run, O'Hara went 2 for 4 with an rbi, and Moser had a 2 for 4 day with three ribs and a run.
Steinhorn was 3 for 3 with a run and an rbi for Amherst. Reliever Mike Castigle took the loss for the Purple & White.
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