Baseball Falls to No. 10 Sagehens in Series Finale Sunday

CLAREMONT, CALIF. (March 16, 2025) - The Tufts University baseball team fell short of completing a comeback in the third match of the series at No. 10 Pomona-Pitzer on Alumni Field, as the Jumbos lost 5-10 to the Sagehens on Sunday afternoon.

The Jumbos (3-6, 0-0 NESCAC) starter Jacob Lapp faced a Sagehens (11-5, 4-2 SCIAC) offense that was ready to hit, as they were led off by a home run thanks to JC Ng. Lapp tagged a few batters to load the bases before Xavier Hattenburg smoked a grand slam over right field to give the Sagehens a 5-0 lead in the first. 

Cole Donato stepped in to relieve Lapp and, other than a 2 run homer by Jack Gold, had a strong three inning outing. He struck out a pair while pitching the most innings of any Tufts thrower today. 

The Jumbos offense struggled against Pomona pitcher Max Brunngraber the first time through the order, but the second time through saw them unlock the Sagehen starter's secrets. Jesse McCullough reached on a walk, and Ben Leonard drove him in by smoking a home run to right field. The Jumbos seemed to like that sequence, so they ran it back with a slight variation. Henry Fleckner knocked a single up the middle, and Max Pavlik homered to right to bring him home, bringing the Jumbos within three runs of the Sagehens. 

The Jumbos could not keep the basepaths clean while the offense tried to mount a comeback, and the hosts plated another pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth to regain a five run lead. Another run came across an inning later and the Sagehens led 10-4 through six. 

Fleckner and McCullough combined again to get another run for the Jumbos, as Fleckner flew out to right to score McCullough on the sacrifice, but nothing more would come for the Tufts offense as Brunngraber settled in en route to an eight inning performance. Justin Zerger shut the door with a clean 1-2-3 ninth inning, and the Jumbos dropped the series finale to the home team.

Tufts has a day off to enjoy the California sunshine tomorrow before they face the No. 16 Claremont-Mudds-Scripps Stags on Tuesday at 3:00 pm PDT (6:00 pm EDT).