Jumbos Split Doubleheader With Sagehens to Start West Coast Tilt

CLAREMONT, CALIF. (March 15, 2025) - The Tufts University baseball team battled for a split with the No. 10 Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens to open up their West Coast road trip at Alumni Field on Saturday.

Graduate student starter Silas Reed was stellar on the mound from the first pitch of game one, striking out two in the bottom of the first. He kept the bats quiet in his second start of the season, escaping an error in the bottom of the second by forcing a double play and ground out. The large dimensions of Alumni Field helped keep the ball inside the field of play, but it was Reed's command that made even the worst of his pitches difficult to hit. He was hitting his spots with such accuracy that it was hard to believe he was three time zones east just a day prior. 

The Tufts offense finally got going in the top of the third inning, when the hottest hitter for Tufts continued his fantastic start to the year by smacking a double off the wall in right center. Ben Leonard reached second standing up, and was driven in by a Max Pavlik single after Henry Fleckner drew a walk. Cooper Smith poked a single into center field immediately after to drive in Fleckner from second. Connor Brala added an RBI with a sacrifice fly to make it a third in the frame. 

From there, the Jumbos were in control of the game. Reed was dealing on the bump, pitching the entire seven inning game while racking up 10 strikeouts and limiting the Sagehens to only two earned runs. Brala tacked on another run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth before Pavlik drove in another run with a single to left and Fleckner came around to score after Smith reached on an error. 

Pomona added a pair of runs to their scoreline in the bottom of the sixth, but Reed escaped the jam with a strikeout to end the inning. The Jumbos held on to win 6-2 in the seven inning opener to the doubleheader. 

Game two saw the Sagehen's offense wake back up after a sleepy game one. They tagged the Jumbos starter Connor Podeszwa for five runs over the seniors' five innings of work to jump out to a lead. The Tufts bats were solid, as they totaled six hits as a team, but they failed to link hits together to manufacture runs. 

Michael O.Brian allowed another run to make it 6-0 in favor of the hosts, but Pavlik stepped up and smoked a home run to right field to put the Jumbos on the board. An inning later, Pavlik would earn yet another RBI as he was hit by a pitch. Smith picked up another run batted in as well after grounding out to second to score Leonard. 

Tufts would be silenced by the Sagehens' pitchers through the remaining two innings, and would have to settle for the split doubleheader with the number ten team in the nation.

Tufts will play in the deciding match tomorrow at Alumni Field, first pitch at 2:00 pm PDT (5:00 pm PDT).