Box Score
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Junior Dave Ryan opened Tufts' appearance at NESCAC's with seven solid innings
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SPRINGFIELD – Tufts University junior starter Dave Ryan (Trumbull, CT) tossed seven strong innings, while senior David Orlowitz (Wakefield, MA) tied a tournament hit record, going 5 for 5 with three rbi, as the NESCAC East Division champion Jumbos downed Middlebury College 14-2 in the opening round of the conference championship at AIC Park.
Tufts, which improved to 25-7-1 overall, will face Bowdoin College in the third game of the league tournament scheduled for 10:30 am on Saturday at Amherst College's Memorial Field. The Panthers, who drop to 15-15 on the year, will meet Amherst College in game four at AIC Park slated for 10:30 am.
Seniors Chase Rose (Paradise Valley, AZ) and Frank Petroskey (Dallas, TX), junior Sam Sager (Cranston, RI) and freshman Nate Izzo (Saunderstown, RI) each recorded a pair of hits for the Jumbos, while combining for six rbi and six runs scored. Sophomore Eric Weikert (Avondale Estates, GA) and senior Ian Goldberg (Lake Forest, IL) accounted for the other two Tufts base-knocks on the afternoon.
Middlebury sophomore Michael Morris (Scarsdale, NY) paced the Panther offense going 2 for 4, while freshman Alex Kelly (Rockville, MD) added a pair of hits. Sophomore Joseph Conway (Hummelstown, PA) finished 1 for 3, while juniors Will Baine (Rye, NY) and Murphy McCurdy (Basking Ridge, NJ) notched Middlebury's lone runs batted in.
Ryan allowed two runs on six hits while striking out four in the win, while freshman Christian Sbily (Gaithersburg, MD) tossed a pair of shutout innings in relief. Panthers' senior starter Nick Angstman (Williston, VT) lasted just two innings, surrendering six runs on five hits in the loss.
After a scoreless top half of the first, Tufts wasted no time getting on the board, pushing across five runs on four hits in the bottom of the frame. Senior David LeResche (St. Louis, MO) led off the inning, reaching on a hit by pitch before Orlowitz laced a single to right to put two aboard. The runners would advance to second and third on a wild pitch before Sager doubled to right center, scoring LeResche.
Weikert hit a bloop single to shallow left, plating two more runs to make it 3-0. With the bases loaded and one out, Petroskey hit a grounder to short, allowing Weikert to come home, before Izzo later capped off the Jumbos' inning with a two-out, rbi single to center that staked Tufts to an early 5-0 lead.
Orlowitz led off the bottom of the second with a towering shot to left, pushing the Tufts lead to six. Hoping to avoid any further damage, Angstman settled in, inducing consecutive ground outs to second before retiring the side on a fly out to center.
The Jumbos would again threaten in the bottom half of the fourth, putting two on after an Orlowitz two-out double to center and a hit by pitch, but Panther reliever John Wiet (Morristown, NJ) got a much-needed strikeout, putting the wraps on a second-consecutive shutout inning in relief.
Middlebury would look to piece something together in the top half of the fifth with sophomore Thomas Rafferty (Chicago, IL) drawing a lead-off walk. After junior Tyler Wark (Burlington, VT) lined out to third, Kelly singled to right, putting two Panthers on. Sophomore Thomas Driscoll (New Canaan, CT) then reached on a fielder's choice back to the mound, getting runners on the corners, but Ryan got a big strikeout to end the Middlebury threat.
The Jumbos responded with a big fifth, pushing across five runs on five hits as the Tufts lead swelled to 11-0. With runners on second and third with one out, Goldberg scored on a wild pitch before Petroskey laced a single to left plating another run. Orlowitz later singled to center with two-on and two out, driving in another run, before a Sager base-knock to left coupled with a Middlebury error allowed two more Jumbos to come home, putting Tufts up by 11.
Still searching for their first run, Rafferty and Conway led off the Middlebury seventh with a pair of singles. Kelly later drew a one-out walk to load the bases, before McCurdy reached on a fielder's choice to short, scoring the Panthers' first run. Baine later added to the tally with a two-out, rbi single to center, making it 11-2, but Tufts responded with a three-run frame to pad their cushion en route to a 14-2 triumph.
Game Box Score
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Game release courtesy of Amherst College
