Box Score NASHUA, NH - Three Jumbo pitchers and great defense limited Wesleyan University to one run as the Tufts baseball team defeated the Cardinals 6-1 in game four of the 2016 NESCAC Championship on Saturday at historic Holman Stadium.
Tufts (31-6) moves into the championship round of the tournament to be played on Sunday. The Jumbos await the winner of game five between Wesleyan and Trinity, to be played on Saturday night. Tufts will need just one win on Sunday to earn the conference crown. The Jumbos, NESCAC finalists for the ninth time, will be playing for their fourth league title.
Jumbo pitchers Tim Superko, Joe Thomas, and R.J. Hall combined on the win, though the Tufts defense came up big for them in several situations. Thomas earned the decision, improving to 4-1. He went five innings allowing five hits and one unearned run. Hall came on and got a save with two innings of one-hit, no-run relief.
Tufts scored in the first after a lead-off single by Cody McCallum. He stole second, but had to leave the game with an injury on the play. Pinch-runner Stephan White scored when Wesleyan threw away a double-play ball.
Superko worked out of a bases-loaded jam with a ground ball for the third out in the second. In the Cardinals' third, Tufts sophomore 3B Tommy O'Hara grabbed a ground ball and caught Guy Davidson at home trying to score from third. Thomas then worked out of another bases-loaded situation keeping it a 1-0 game. Wesleyan left seven runners on base in the first three innings.
Cardinal starter Peter Rantz kept the Jumbos at one run through the sixth. With the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, he got a double-play ball to squelch Tufts' rally. The Jumbos would take a 2-0 lead in the seventh though as Harry Brown doubled to right-center scoring Tom Petry, who had been hit by a pitch.
The Cardinals cut the lead in half with an unearned run in the seventh. Jordan Farber hit a ball to deep left that wasn't caught for a two-base error. When Matt Jeye singled up the middle, Wes had runners on first and third with no outs. Marco Baratta's sacrifice fly scored Farber with the Cardinals' first run. However, the Jumbos would gun down the potential tying run at the plate for the third out. On a hit by Nick Miceli, Tufts' Christian Zazzali, who had just come into the game to play center, relayed to shortstop Matt Moser, who then fired a bullet home to catcher Eric Schnepf to get Jeye at the plate and preserve the 2-1 lead.
The Jumbos would pull away, scoring twice in both the eighth and ninth innings. Moser drew a lead-off walk and scored on a single by Oscar Kutch in the eighth. Kutch stole second and scored on a Cardinal throwing error.
Trailing 4-1 at the time, Wesleyan had two runners on with one out in the eighth after a single by Eric Jones. O'Hara snared a line drive though and turned it into a double play ending the inning.
The Jumbos then loaded the bases in the ninth. A single up the middle with the infield in by Dan Kelly and a walk to Nick Falkson plated the final runs.
Brown and Kutch both had three hits to lead Tufts' 10-hit attack. Andrew Keith and Will O'Sullivan had a pair of hits for Wesleyan.
Rantz took the loss for the Cardinals allowing six hits and two runs (one earned) with three strikeouts and three walks in seven innings.
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