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Box Score 2 MEDFORD – Tufts University batters hit four home runs and the pitchers did not allow a run in 14 innings as the Jumbo baseball team opened their 2021 season with an impressive 4-0 and 10-0 sweep of Colby College on Saturday afternoon at Huskins Field. The games were the first for the Jumbos in nearly two years after the entire 2020 season was canceled by COVID.
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| Miles Reid struck the first big blow for Tufts with a game one home run. |
Miles Reid broke a 0-0 stalemate when he hit a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning in game one. That would be more than enough production for Jumbo junior starter Michael Volgende, who went six innings allowing two hits and no runs with eight strikeouts and a walk.
Jackson Duffy tripled home Peter DeMaria in the sixth and then scored on a two-run home run by Brandon Bay for the Jumbos' 4-0 advantage.
Volgende did not allow a hit until the fourth when Colby's Cabot Mayer singled. The only trouble he got into was with runners on first and second with one out in the sixth, but he got the next two batters. Brendan McFall pitched a scoreless seventh including a 4-6-3 double play to end it.
Tufts had just six hits against Colby starter Jack Pletter, who had pitched 4.2 scoreless innings allowing three hits before Reid's shot. Pletter took the loss allowing all four runs with five K's and a walk. Duffy finished 2 for 3 for the Jumbos.
Tufts sent 12 men to the plate and exploded for nine runs in the opening frame of game two, including a three-run triple by Jimmy Evans and a two-run home run by Kyle Cortese back-to-back. That again was plenty of runs for the Tufts starter, as sophomore Cameron Mayer went five innings giving up two hits with eight strikeouts and a walk.
The Jumbos had seven hits in the first inning including a Cortese triple in his first at-bat. DeMaria, Ryan Daues and Reid added rbi singles. From that point on, the scoring featured only a solo home run by Jumbo Ryan Noone in the fourth.
Mayer twice worked out of jams, including runners on second and third with one out in the first and bases loaded with two outs in the fourth. Tufts reliever Silas Reed recorded all of his six outs by strikeout for Tufts, though he was also touched for four hits.
Cortese was 2 for 2 with two rbis and two runs in the nightcap and finished the day with a 1.400 slugging percentage. Noone was 2 for 4 with two runs for the second game.
Mules shortstop Andrew Russell had two hits in the second game. Frank Driscoll took the pitching loss, as he could only record one out before he was lifted.
The teams will play another pair tomorrow at Colby.
