Jumbos Best JWU 12-8 Tuesday Afternoon

MEDFORD MA, (March 12, 2024) - The Tufts University baseball team continued their season-opening five-game homestand this afternoon with a 12-8 win over Johnson & Wales University. JWU was undefeated winning their last five games coming into today.

The Jumbos (3-1) gave the ball to senior Silas Reed who faced 29 batters on the day. He went 6.2 innings striking out six and giving up six runs and throwing 99 pitches on the day. In the top of the first Reed retired the side in order striking out one batter. The Jumbos would get one runner on base in the bottom of the first inning as first-year Malachi Pena reached base on a fielding error by the Wildcats. 

In the top of the second inning the Jumbos would find themselves down early as the Wildcats led off with a single to start the inning to put a man on first then two batters later Junior Owen Davis drove the ball deep into center field that cleared the wall for a two-run home run to put the Wildcats up 2-0. 

 The Jumbos would get a run back in the bottom of the inning. Sophomore Owen McKiernan led the bottom half with a hard-hit ground ball to third base that could not be corralled, he would go on to steal second base and then advance to third on a passed ball. Sophomore Jesse McCullough got McKiernan home successfully on a ground out. 

In the top of the third Reed retired the Wildcats in order again to end the inning, Reed would record another strikeout in the inning. In the bottom of the third, the Jumbos put up four runs to take a 5-2 lead, the inning was highlighted by a two-run, two-out double to left field by senior Patrick Solomon that scored grad student Connor Flavin and McCullough. 

Reed shut down the Wildcats in the top of the fourth inning striking out another batter, in the top of the fifth inning, the Wildcats would cut their deficit to two runs to make the score 5-3. The Jumbos got that run back in the bottom half of the inning thanks to another RBI from Solomon, he had three RBIs on the day. 

The Wildcats got another run in during the top of the sixth to make the score 6-4. In the top of the seventh JWU would tie the game at six. The Jumbos went to the bullpen during the top half of the inning and senior Liam Wilson came into relief. 

In the bottom half of the seventh, the Jumbos would retake the lead for good as Solomon drove in McCullough with a sacrifice fly to center to give the Jumbos a 7-6 lead. McCullough reached base earlier in the inning with a double down the left-field line. Flavin advanced McCullough to third on a deep fly ball to right. 

In the bottom of the eighth, the Jumbos added five more insurance runs. The bottom of the inning started with sophomore Malcolm Whitfield singling and beating out a throw to first. Whitfield stole second and third base then junior Henry Fleckner would drive Whitfield in to score. The Jumbos would add four more runs in the inning to get the score to 12-6. 

In the top of the ninth, the lead-off man for the Wildcats was walked then three consecutive batters were hit by a pitch to walk in their seventh run to make the game a save situation for the Jumbos. Senior Hunter Beindorff was called upon to stop the damage, he was successful as he forced a fly out to center field that brought the Wildcat's eighth and final run to the plate then struck out a batter. Solomon made a great catch on a hard-line drive for the third out to secure a 12-8 win for the Jumbos and give Beindorff his first save of the year. 

Wilson was given the win for the day and JWU pitcher Ryan Shultz was given the loss. The Jumbos stole seven bases on the day. Flavin went 2-4 on the day with two doubles and McCullough went 3-5 with three RBIs. 

The Jumbos will play the last game of their five-game homestand tomorrow against MIT before they go to California for spring break games. The first pitch tomorrow will be at 3 p.m. at Sol Gittleman Park. 

                                                                                                       --JUMBOS--