Christian Sbily – Nothing But NESCAC

Aces Are Wild: Tufts Baseball Season Preview

Tim Superko '17 (above) and Kyle Slinger '15 are expected to form the best 1-2 punch in the NESCAC (Courtesy of Tufts Athletics) — Tim Superko ’17 (above) and Kyle Slinger ’15 are expected to form the best 1-2 punch in the NESCAC (Courtesy of Tufts Athletics)

2014 Record: 34-9 (9-3, Lost in NESCAC Championship Game, 1-2 in NCAA New England Regional)

Returning Starters: 7 (5 Position Players, 2 Pitchers)

Projected Starting Lineup (2014 Stats):

CF Connor McDavitt ’15 (.345/.461/.455, 0 HR, 28 RBI, 15 SB)
LF Cody McCallum ’16 (.226/.327/.238, 0 HR, 8 RBI, 7 SB)
DH Bryan Egan ’15 (.258/.368/.290, 0 HR, 9 RBI)
3B Tommy O’Hara ’18
SS Matt Moser ’15 (.299/.371/.422, 2 HR, 28 RBI)
1B James Howard ’15 (.280/.415/.320, 0 HR, 11 RBI)
C Nick Barker ’15 (.346/.466/.432, 1 HR, 13 RBI)
2B Tom Petry ’17 (.256/.424/.333/ 0 HR, 17 RBI)
RF Harry Brown ’16 (.200/.273/.200, 0 HR, 0 RBI)

SP Kyle Slinger ’15 (9-0, 1.18 ERA)
SP Tom Superko ’17 (4-2, 2.64 ERA)
SP Andrew David ’16 (4-3, 3.60 ERA)

Offensive Overview:

Tufts’ offensive is the only aspect of their team that causes any uncertainty heading into 2015. Though the Jumbos’ .278 team average in 2014 was middle of the pack, Tufts stakes its identity on its pitching and defense, so if the offense can produce at a high level they will be very tough to beat. The middle of the order will look very different this season as Wade Hauser ’14 and Max Freccia ’14 both graduated last spring. Centerfielder Connor McDavitt ’15 enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2014 where he hit .345 with 28 RBIs and tied for the team lead with 14 doubles. McDavitt is a sure lock for the lead off spot in the Jumbos’ lineup. Nick Barker ’15 hit .345 in a part-time role last year and figures to share time behind the plate with classmate Bryan Egan ’15. James Howard ’15 figures to get quality at bats at first base after batting .280 with 18 walks over 29 starts in 2014. Matt Moser ’15 will play a key offensive role after earing All-NESCAC honors last year and batting .299 with a team leading 38 RBIs.

Defensive Overview:

The Jumbos Defense is one of the best not only in the NESCAC, but also in the nation. Flashing a .967 fielding percentage a year ago, they look to continue their tradition of defensive excellence. The centerpiece of the Jumbos defense will be returning NESCAC Defensive POY McDavitt. McDavitt had just one error in 105 total chances last year and tallied five outfield assists. All-NESCAC First Team SS Moser, who helped Tufts turn 40 double plays last year, and 2B Tom Petry ’17, who had a .960 fielding percentage, figure to form one of the strongest middle infields in the NESCAC. The Jumbos will look to Barker and Egan to split time behind the plate as First Team All-NESCAC catcher Nick Cutsumpas ’14 graduated.

Pitching Overview:

Like their defense, the Jumbos pitching aims to be one of the top staffs in the country. Tufts ranked seventh nationally with a 2.53 ERA last season. Anchored by the reigning NESCAC Pitcher of the Year and NEIBA and D3Baseball.com All-New England First Teamer Kyle Slinger ’15, Tufts figures to dominate their NESCAC competition again. Slinger, a pro prospect and D3baseball.com preseason All-American, went 9-0 and posted an unreal 1.18 ERA over 76 innings in 2014. Also returning to the starting rotation is reigning NESCAC Rookie of the Year Tim Superko ’17. In 2014, Superko logged 58 innings while posting a 2.64 ERA and an impressive 2.4 K/BB ratio. The Jumbos will look to replace Christian Sbily ’14, an All-NESCAC Second Team pick, with righty Andrew David ’16. The Jumbos’ bullpen will be strong once again as Tom Ryan ’15, who posted a team leading 2.8 K/BB ratio, and Willie Archibald ’15 look to shut down opponent’s offenses in the late innings and Speros Varinos ’17, who matched Ryan for the most appearances last year, could rack up a lot of saves for the Jumbos.

Storylines to Watch:

1. Can Tufts avenge their NESCAC championship loss?

After missing the conference tournament for two years in a row, the Jumbos returned with a bang by winning the East pennant and earning a berth into the Championship series. After forcing a winner-take-all game by beating Wesleyan 10-0 on the brink of elimination but ultimately dropping the finale, the Jumbos are on a mission to take back the throne. With a nationally-ranked defense and pitching staff, the Jumbos are in prime position to take home the NESCAC crown in 2015. With the reigning POY and reigning ROY returning to their starting rotation, the Jumbos aim to do some serious damage in the NESCAC.

2. What will Kyle Slinger accomplish in his senior season?

Kyle Slinger has been one of the most dominant pitchers over his career at Tufts. Last year’s performance was one for the record books as he held opposing hitters to an astonishing .174 batting average. Slinger’s previous performance lead to D3Baseball.com selecting him to be a pre-season All-American. With his impressive track record, expect Slinger to raise the bar even further this season and put up some mind-blowing stats.

3. How does the Jumbos lineup shake out?

If there is anything that can hold Tufts back this season it is the offense. Can their offense provide enough run support for its heralded starters? Can returning players such as Moser and McDavitt step up to replace last year’s seniors? Either way the Jumbos will need multiple players to step up to fill in the gap. Freshmen such as Tommy O’Hara ’18, Michael McLaughlin ’18, Christian Zazzali ’18 and Stefan White ’18 figure to get an opportunity to compete for at bats if the returners don’t produce.

Biggest Series: April 24-25 against Bates

Bates probably presents the stiffest challenge that Tufts will face in the NESCAC East, and the two teams’ strengths match up with one another, as the Bobcats figure to bang the ball around the park quite a bit this season. It will be fun to watch two of the league’s best units go after one another, and either team could be fighting for a spot in the NESCAC tournament seeing as this represents the last conference series of the regular season for both teams.

The Case for the ‘Cac: Students-and-Athletes

A few weeks ago, the NESCAC released its list of 2014 Spring All-Academic selections. Not surprising a whole bunch of people made it (999 to be exact), and not just the guys who sit on the end of the bench. While in Division 1 having a star that is also a stellar student is unusual, in the NESCAC it is almost the norm. Of course, this is exactly how it should be, given the ethos and goals of all the NESCAC schools in placing more emphasis on academics than athletics. To show just how outstanding the caliber of talent is that made the All-Academic team, we compiled two “All-Star” teams, if you will, one with the academic qualifications to make the All-Academic squad and the other chosen from everyone else remaining. Freshmen are not eligible because they have not completed a whole academic year so players like Tim Superko ’17 are not included in this exercise.

All-Academic Lineup	The Rest Lineup
1. Andrew Yin (Second Base)	1. Donnie Cimino (Center Field)
2. Taiki Kasuga (Shortstop)	2. Aaron Rosen (Second Base)
3. Alex Hero (Center Field)	3. Mike Odenwaelder (Right Field)
4. Chad Martin (Designated Hitter)	4. Jason Buco (Left Field)
5. Kevin Galvin (Third Base)	5. Griff Tewksbury (Designated Hitter)
6. Bryan Wolfe (First Base)	6. Sam Goodwin-Boyd (First Base)
7. Nick Cutsumpas (Catcher)	7. Guy Davidson (Shortstop)
8. Matt Moser (Right Field)	8. Kevin Davis (Third Base)
9. Luke Pierce (Left Field)	9. Mekae Hyde (Catcher)

All-Academic Rotation	The Rest Rotation
John Cook	Kyle Slinger
Brad Reynolds	Nick Cooney
Dylan Driscoll	Christian Sbily
Scott Goldberg	Gavin Pittore

Both teams are obviously stacked, but have different strengths. The All-Academic team lacks the mashers in the middle of the lineup that The Rest has in Jason Buco ’15 and Mike Odenwaelder ’16. The pitching staff for the All-Academic team is stronger, however. The difference is minimal especially given the presence of Kyle Slinger ’15 on The Rest. Though I don’t go in depth with the pitchers, it should be noted that other very good pitchers like Tom Ryan ’15 made the All-Academic team as well. Another roster note is that Matt Moser ’16 plays shortstop and not right field, but there was a significant logjam in the middle infield and nobody in the outfield for the All-Academic team so I made the executive decision to keep him on the field in that way.

If these two teams were to meet I would have to give a slight edge to The Rest team, but my guess is that if the teams played ten times, the All-Academic team wins four games. Their pitching is good enough and the talent level throughout the lineup is only a smidgeon worse than the Rest. The purpose of this exercise is of course simply to show the amount of talent that made the All-Academic team and not to really compare the teams.

One last note is that many of the athletes who did not make the All-Academic team still work incredibly hard in the classroom. Keep in mind that the difficulty of achieving the requisite 3.35 GPA fluctuates between departments, majors and professors. This isn’t to disparage anyone who did make the All-Academic team because a 3.35 isn’t easy no matter what classes you take. I want to make clear that I’m not putting down The Rest roster for their performance in the classroom. A lot of factors besides a student’s intelligence and work ethic go into what a final GPA looks like. With that being said, a huge congratulations to all of the students for their great work both on the diamond and in the classroom this spring..

Saturday Recap

Saturday brought more excitement and intrigue with two teams going home in the NESCAC tournament’s version of moving day.

Wesleyan jumped into the driver’s seat with a scintillating 3-2 victory over Tufts. Both starters shut down the offenses early with the game scoreless through four innings. Tufts struck first in the top of the fifth on a Max Freccia ’14 double to score Wade Hauser ’15. Wesleyan battled back when they played some small ball. Andrew Yin ’15 plated Nick Miceli ’17 on a bunt single. After a Donnie Cimino ’15 single, both runners moved up on a double steal, and scored on a Sam Goodwin-Boyd ’15 single. Gavin Pittore ’16 made sure the lead held up with 4.2 innings of one run ball in relief. He jumped all over Tufts’ hitters with nine strikeouts and moves to 6-1 on the season. A more complete recap can be found here. Also a thanks to Wescores for providing pictures of the game here.

Now the Cardinals head into tomorrow in complete control. Manager Mark Woodworth made clear how much he wanted to win when he brought in Pittore so quickly in relief. The move made perfect sense since a loss would have made Wesleyan need three more wins to take the championship. It is unclear who will get the start tomorrow for the Cardinals, but Woodworth will probably be ready to use any of his pitchers including Pittore and Nick Cooney ’15.

In the loser’s bracket Bates beat Amherst in what was the most surprising result of the day. Bates rallied from down 2-1 to score three runs in the eighth to win 4-2 and bounce Amherst from the tournament. No doubt a disappointing finish for Amherst, but all the credit should be given to a Bates team that proved they are right there with the best teams in the NESCAC this weekend. Dean Bonneau ’14 was spectacular in relief allowing only one hit in 3.2 scoreless innnings. A complete recap can be found here.

The last game of the day was another elimination game between East Division foes Tufts and Bates. Tufts used a five run third inning to take much of the suspense out of the game. Christian Sbily ’14 and Tom Ryan ’15 made sure the lead had no problem holding up for Tufts as they cruised to a 7-1 victory. Recap is here. Bates finishes the season at 20-21, but that record vastly undersells the quality of team they were. Tufts moves onto the championship where they will have to win two games tomorrow against Wesleyan.

It will be a tall task for Tufts to beat Wesleyan twice especially given that their three top pitchers have already started this weekend. The potential ability for pitchers to quickly turn around and pitch even one or two innings will be a huge difference maker. Right now a Wesleyan team that started only 5-4 looks primed to finish off a dominant run through the NESCAC regular season and playoffs.

Power Rankings Part 2- The East Playoff Teams

We ranked every team that team that is already done for the season, and now it is time to move our attention to those still playing. Since it is too early to wrap up their seasons, we will look towards the weekend. We cover why each team will win, each team will lose, and the player no one is talking about right now who we will be on Monday. And no, we don’t miss that irony. The NESCAC website championship weekend preview is also worth a look with a good overview of the four teams. Finally, we are breaking up the East and West. Note the rankings for each team are only relevant in our power rankings Just because we are putting Tufts first in the final power rankings doesn’t mean we think they will necessarily win. Our predictions will be out Friday morning.

4. Bates (19-19, 7-5)

Why They Will Win: Bates is playing with more and more confidence every week. That confidence isn’t shaken by losing four games in a row this week to Suffolk and St. Joseph’s (Maine). Their senior trio of Brad Reynolds ’14, Kevin Davis ’14, and Griff Tewksbury ’14 have to play extraordinary to give them a chance. If Reynolds pitches in the first game against Wesleyan, he will benefit from their lack of familiarity against him. Expect Reynolds to make relief appearances as well in his final college weekend. Davis and Tewksbury will have to carry an offense that lacked depth at the beginning of the year. Guys like Rockwell Jackson ’15, Brendan Fox ’17, and Sam Warren ’16 have done a great job stepping up and making sure it isn’t just a two man rodeo. Those guys need to continue to produce in order to score enough runs. The formula for success is a great start by Reynolds, a clean weekend fielding, and contributions up and down the lineup.

Why They Will Lose: If Bates loses the game Reynolds starts, then it’s chances of winning the whole tournament will all but disappear. There is no doubt that Bates is the least talented team in the whole tournament so it needs it’s strengths to be especially strong. The defensive problems we saw earlier in the year flared up this week in a four error game against St. Joseph’s. The real weakness for Bates is their pitching behind Reynolds. Chris Fusco is a senior who has pitched a lot of games, but his 5.35 ERA belies the fact that relying on him is a risky proposition. Will Levangie ’15 has a miniscule ERA (1.65), but has made only one relief appearance in the last four weeks so his status for this weekend is unclear. A host of relievers have pitched well in more limited roles, and it is possible Bates shuffles pitchers in and out to keep hitters from seeing anybody multiple times.

Sleeper- Dean Bonneau ’14 Relief Pitcher: One of the overlooked Bates seniors has quietly put together a nice season out of the bullpen. In 22 innings Bonneau has a 1.64 ERA and 9.00 K/9. He could be called on if one of the Bates starters falters early on. Bates will stretch whatever is working as much as possible, and Bonneau could be a magic balm for any pitching shortcomings that crop up.

1. Tufts (30-5, 9-3)

Why They Will Win: Over the course of the season, Tufts has proven themselves to be the most complete team in the NESCAC. They have scored more runs, gotten on base more often, allowed less runs, and committed less errors than every team in the NESCAC. Kyle Slinger ’15 is the best pitcher in the NESCAC, and Christian Sbily ’14 and Tim Superko ’17 are no slouches either. The three starters are also the top three in ERA for the NESCAC. On the other side of the ball we wrote about how Connor McDavitt has exploded at the top of the lineup, and Tufts deep lineup gets on base nearly four times out of ten (.398 team OBP). Their 30 wins in the regular season is an impressive accomplishment that shows the quality of player on the roster from the first to last player. Tufts will win if their starting pitching steps up once again like they have every time they have been called on this year.

Why They Will Lose: In a double elimination setting, games aren’t won on paper. Every team has weaknesses, and Tufts is no different with a bullpen that blew leads in three NESCAC games. Tom Ryan ’15 is the main reliever out of the pen, and he was involved in two of those games. Behind him the bullpen looks to be mainly Matt Moser ’16 and Spero Varinos ’17. The more games Tufts plays this weekend, the more and more their bullpen could be exposed. While we talked about how balanced Tufts’ hitting is, the flip side of that is they don’t have a go to thumper in the middle of the lineup. Put another way, Tufts relies on wearing down pitchers more than hitting the ball out of the park. The Jumbos have hit the least amount of homers of any team in the playoffs, though really only Amherst has a significant amount more. With the pitching improving in the playoffs, it’s possible Tufts will struggle to score runs.

Sleeper- Nick Cutsumpas ’14 Catcher: Ok, so it isn’t like Cutsumpas hasn’t performed all year with his .432 OBP and steady defense behind the plate, but others have hogged the headlines for the most part. The senior is somewhat of a streaky hitter. His last seven games with a hit have all been multi-hit games. If he gets hot this weekend, forget about it, Tufts will be too good to be beat.

The Weekend Preview: May 2

The playoff field is set for next weekend, but not every question has been answered. This weekend’s schedule is light on NESCAC games, with only three makeup games on the docket, so we’ll focus on the Saturday doubleheader between Bates, who is playing in its first NESCAC tournament, and Tufts which will decide where the NESCAC playoffs are to be held. Aside from that matchup, there are some interesting East vs. West games coming up this weekend that we’ll take a peek at.

Who’s Number One: #9 Tufts (27-4, 8-2) at Bates (18-14, 6-4)

The Jumbos travel to Lewiston for the completion of a series that Tufts’ took the opener of way back on the first weekend of NESCAC play, 2-0. That game was played in Medford due to weather, and Kyle Slinger ’15 struck out 11 Bobcats through seven innings before phenom Tim Superko ’17 tossed two dominant frames for his first career save.
The situation this time around is simple. If Tufts wins one game, the NESCAC tourney will be played in Medford, but if Bates can sweep the Jumbos at home then the rest of the playoff field will be heading north. And for those who are wondering, the #9 next to Tufts is their national ranking according to D3baseball. The Jumbos are the only team from the NESCAC to receive votes this week. After a terrible 1-6 Georgia trip, Bates has been coming on strong down the stretch. The team’s only back-to-back losses since the beginning of April occurred this past Tuesday and Wednesday on the road at Fisher and #5 Southern Maine.

A certain amount of strategy figures to come into effect for the first game of the doubleheader this weekend. Brad Reynolds ’14 of Bates has been an animal for the Bobcats in 2014, winning the series opener against Bowdoin, Trinity and Colby. Reynolds lost last time out against Tufts, but pitched well, allowing two runs in seven innings. Reynolds has been employed for the nine-inning series openers all season, but head coach Mike Leonard will have to treat these two games like a playoff series if he intends to play for the chance to host, as I suspect he will. It’s only the first game of the doubleheader, but Reynolds gives Bates the best chance to win, so don’t be surprised if Reynolds trots out there with the expectation of throwing a complete seven-inning game.

Superko has been the seven-inning man for Tufts, and I see no reason why Tufts should change what’s been working, unless head coach John Casey decides to hand the ball to his senior, Christian Sbily ’14, and give him the chance to win home field advantage, or opts to go with his most dominant arm and NESCAC ERA leader Slinger for the seven-inning game.Depending on who wins the first game, the second game could either mean everything or nothing at all. All hands should be on deck as long as the top seed is in the balance, so whoever doesn’t start for Tufts will likely see action out of the bullpen. What makes the Jumbos so great is that they could trot out any one of four powerful arms – Sbily, Slinger, Superko or Tom Ryan ’15 – and still be expected to win.

As for Bates, if they can steal game one, the ball ought to go to Will Levangie ’15 in the second game because he owns a 1.78 ERA. But Levangle has only gone more than five innings once this season, so the rest of the staff, including Anthony Telesca ’17 (1.69 ERA) will need to be ready to go.

In the end, Tufts is too balanced and too good to let Bates win two games in one day, so expect the road to the title to go through Medford. You can take a look at the Bates’ perspective of the coming series here.

Around the ‘CAC

Hamilton heads to Williams tonight to finish their series begun last Sunday. With the win, Williams will finish its NESCAC season with a winning record. The live stream can be found here.

After a Friday game with Lasell, Colby will take to the road for a doubleheader with Amherst on Saturday (video). Colby was knocked out of the playoffs last weekend, and would love to make a statement against one of the West representatives.

Trinity and Wesleyan are also playing a cross-divisional doubleheader on Saturday (video). It’s been a disappointing season for Trinity, but a couple wins against in-state rival Wesleyan would go a long way towards ending the year on a high note.

Middlebury will finish off its long season this weekend by hosting Bowdoin for a doubleheader on Saturday and Tufts on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how Tufts employs its staff on Sunday after Saturday’s meaningful match ups.

A few more non-conference games will be played this weekend. Hamilton travels to SUNYIT on Saturday for a doubleheader and will play host to SUNY Canton on Sunday. Springfield heads to Williams for two on Saturday, while Suffolk will visit the Ephs on Sunday. UMass-Boston will play two with Amherst on Sunday as well, and Bowdoin will head to St. Joseph’s on Sunday, a team that the Polar Bears beat 11-6 earlier this season. The biggest non-NESCAC game of the weekend comes on Sunday when #24 Eastern Connecticut heads to Middletown to play Wesleyan at 1 PM on Sunday.

Make sure to tune in for what promises to be an intense matchup in Lewiston on Saturday. The conference’s top seed hangs in the balance.

Stock Report April 29

We recapped the action of what went down this weekend last night in our roundup. Now it is time to look at the people who were the biggest movers this weekend. For the playoffs, it’s often better to be hot than good, so take that to heart as teams gear up for the playoffs which are still two weekends away.

Stock Up:

1. Sam Goodwin-Boyd ’15 – First Baseman (Wesleyan) – Goodwin-Boyd has been absolutely mashing since conference play got started. He didn’t let up this weekend hitting a huge home run in the first game against Amherst before topping that by hitting another one in the next game that was the only damage Wesleyan could do against Amherst’s John Cook ’15. That was enough, though, as great pitching on both teams led to a 1-1 tie entering the bottom of the ninth. Wesleyan pushed across a run to walk-off with the win, they’re second in conference play, and the West division title. Goodwin-Boyd owns a tidy .566 slugging percentage which goes a long way towards explaining how he has a league-leading 32 RBIs. Wesleyan was the first team that really got to Amherst’s pitching even though Amherst still pitched very well overall. Winning the division is huge for the Cardinals because Wesleyan should get to avoid Tufts and instead get a much weaker (though hot) Bates.

2. Christian Sbily ’14 – Starting Pitcher (Tufts) – We have dedicated most of our virtual ink to talking about Tufts’ top two of Kyle Slinger ’15 and Tim Superko ’17, but the number three has been so good that he merits equal credit for Tufts’ success. Like so many others, Sbily has been at his best in recent weeks. He shut out Colby for seven innings last week and yesterday he scattered five hits for the complete game shutout. Sbily isn’t the same type of power pitcher the other two are, but he goes deep into games because he is able to have consistently low pitch counts. He is a huge advantage for Tufts because while many NESCAC teams have aces comparable to Slinger and Superko, Sbily is almost unmatched as a third starter. Sbily could be the difference-maker for Tufts in the NESCAC Championship.

3. Thomas Murphy ’15 and Steve Marino ’14 – Starting Pitchers (Williams) – This has not been a banner season for the Williams pitching staff, but this duo really came through yesterday as Williams swept Hamilton. Murphy went all seven innings to win a duel between him and Jjay Lane ’15. Williams pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to come away with the victory. Marino was just as good going all nine innings, striking out nine, and limiting Hamilton to three earned runs. For Marino, it was an especially high note in his final conference game. Williams wasn’t good enough to hang with the big boys, but if they pitch this well consistently they will have more than a fighter’s chance next year.

4. Chris Fusco ’14 – Starting Pitcher (Bates) – We saw a lot of great pitching performances this weekend, and the love we’ve been doling out in this section is well-deserved. Fusco didn’t have a great day, but he came through to toss 5.2 innings of two-run ball in the deciding game of the Bates-Colby series. Fusco has a tendency to give up homers (five on the season), and Jason Buco ’15 hit another one against him yesterday, but Fusco was very good besides that. Bates had already gotten a PHENOMENAL start by Brad Reynolds ’14, but that alone wasn’t going to be enough. Bates didn’t look like a playoff team way back in February when they were making errors all over the place, but their best players have carried them this far. In a short series they are dangerous.

Stock Down:

1. Ryder Arsenault ’17 – Center Fielder (Colby) – Arsenault has been a enormous part of Colby’s surprise run in the East, but he, like the team, ran out of steam at the end. In the first game Arsenault struck out three times, contributing to the 12 Colby strikouts on the day. Yesterday he saw only one plate appearance, pinch hitting at the end of the third game. We don’t know if his benching was purely performance-related or if he has some type of injury that hindered his play, but the Colby offense really sputtered this weekend. Getting shut down by Bates’ ace Reynolds wasn’t a huge surprise, but they barely got anything going the other two games as well. Arsenault is one of many talented players coming back next year for Colby.

2. Erik Jacobsen ’15 Starting Pitcher/Infielder (Bowdoin) – Bowdoin knew going into the weekend that they needed to sweep Tufts to have a chance at the postseason. The Polar Bears were the first team to give Kyle Slinger ’15 issues as they won the first game of the series. Jacobsen has been solid all season, but Tufts jumped on him early and he didn’t make it out of the third inning in Game Two. The Bowdoin bullpen limited the damage, but the Tufts pitching is too good to make up an early deficit. An offense that has seen some players step up, but other more established ones struggle, couldn’t muster much of a comeback in the eventual 5-1 loss. Understandably after that disappointment, Bowdoin didn’t muster much of a challenge in the third game, losing 14-0.

Weekend Roundup

The final full weekend of NESCAC play was disrupted by the weather, but ultimately it was able to answer all of the questions that we had entering Friday. Wesleyan showed they are the best in the West while Bates continued their strong play to clinch the final playoff spot. The stock report will be up tomorrow morning, but for now here is a quick look around the league.

After a win in the first game of the series behind another great start by Brad Reynolds ’14, Bates dropped the middle game to Colby before Chris Fusco ’14 came up huge on the mound. His start and Sam Warren’s ’16 home run were the difference in the 6-2 victory that clinched a playoff berth for Bates. It is the first ever berth for the Bobcats.

In the other East Division series, Tufts dropped the first game before sweeping the Sunday doubleheader against Bowdoin. As usual, great pitching performances by Christian Sbily ’15 and Tim Superko ’17 were the difference along with the offense going off in the second game. With the losses, Bowdoin drops out of the playoff race.

Out west Williams and Hamilton played an enjoyable weekend series without any playoff implications. Williams swept the doubleheader today as their pitching looked as good as it has all season. Williams now sits at 6-5 and will look to finish above .500 in conference when the teams meet a final time on May 9.

(Courtesy of Williams Sports Information)

And then in the most anticipated matchup, Wesleyan jumped all over Amherst winning the first two games of the series to clinch the West title. Sam Goodwin-Boyd ’15 was the star for the offense while the Wesleyan pitching completed their turnaround by shutting down the vaunted Jeffs offense. The teams could meet again next weekend as both teams had already sewn up playoff spots.

With the playoffs set you can read up on the Championship weekend schedule here. Congrats to Tufts, Bates, Wesleyan, and Amherst for making the playoffs, and keep coming back this week for the best preview of the upcoming action.