Tufts vs. Penn St-Harrisburg; Friday, May 17, 2:00pm @ SUNY Cortland
Another year, another trophy headed to Medford. The Jumbos have done it again, but this time with a slightly different formula. In the past we’ve seen dominant Tufts pitching carry them to a title, and although they do have their guy in RJ Hall ’19, it was the hitting that really stood out this year. Offensively, Tufts led the NESCAC in hits, doubles, home runs, runs scored, runs batted in, walks, batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. The pitching numbers were solid, but it’s no secret that Tufts is back in the regional because of their bats.
How They Got Here
3 of the last 4 NESCAC crowns belong to the Tufts Jumbos, so it really isn’t a surprise that they’re back here yet again. What’s interesting (as I mentioned before) is the way that they did it. Of the 9 guys that start in their lineup, 7 of them are hitting over .300 with the other 2 hitting .289 and .294, respectively. My first thought when I see numbers like this is that Tufts must be playing a pretty easy schedule, because even for a conference champion these are pretty jaw-dropping numbers. Turns out I’m right – despite a very impressive record, the Jumbos were not receiving any credit for most of the year in either the regional or national rankings due to their weak strength of schedule. Well, they responded by winning the NESCAC Tournament behind Kyle Cortese’s record-breaking 5 homer performance and they’ll look to continue their run into the always-tough SUNY Cortland regional.
What’s Next
The key for Tufts moving forward in tournament play is going to be pitching depth. They’ve got their guy in RJ Hall ’19, who recently took home the NESCAC Pitcher of the Year with an astounding 1.31 ERA in 55 innings pitched. In fact, Hall has pitched in 9 games this season (8 starts) and Tufts won all 9 of those games. It’s clear that when Hall takes the mound the game has a very different feeling – the question is what they’ll do after that. They have good arms in Aidan Tucker ’22, Spencer Langdon ’20, and Brent Greeley ’20 who all have starting experience, but they also need someone strong at the back end of games. Coach Casey has been here time and time again, so I would imagine that he already has every inning mapped out to a T.
Penn St-Harrisburg
Harrisburg received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after falling in the Capital Athletic Conference championship series to no. 1 nationally ranked Christopher Newport. A 32-win team is no joke whether they won their conference or not, especially when they’ve hit 68 home runs as a team. In fact, the top 5 hitters in the Harrisburg lineup all have equal or more home runs than the NESCAC league-leader (Kyle Cortese, 7). They’re paced by CAC player of the year Bret Williams ’20, who led the league with 83 hits (17 of which were home runs), finishing with a .430 batting average. The tricky thing with this team is that they aren’t solely reliant on Williams to produce in their lineup. The Nittany Lions are loaded with guys who flat out rake – Miguel Torres ’19 (.399 BA, 7 HR), Chase Smith ’21 (.319 BA, 9 HR), Travis Van Houten ’20 (.391, 11 HR), Zach Koroneos (.267 BA, 12 HR), and Ryan McSorley ’21 (.331, 5 HR), just to name a few. A team ERA of 5.67 is less than impressive, but with offensive production like this it doesn’t seem to really matter.
Matchup Preview
Travis Van Houten ’20 vs. RJ Hall ’19
Van Houten’s numbers don’t jump off the page, but he is clearly the go-to guy for Harrisburg. His 4.91 ERA in 73.1 innings is nothing special, but having 75 strikeouts on the season indicates that this guy has some pretty good stuff. The only question that presents itself is whether or not Harrisburg would want to use their starting third baseman to pitch in the opening game of the tournament. Van Houten is one of the team’s top hitters as well, so I’m interested to see if they’re comfortable using him with a sore arm at third base for the rest of the tournament, or if they’ll decide to go with someone else in game one to give Van Houten an extra game. They threw him in game one of their conference championship series last weekend, so it doesn’t appear that they’re too worried about his impact in the field the day after he pitches.
Hall, on the other hand, has had a pretty dominant year. 8 earned runs in 55 innings is ridiculous, and logically this garnered him NESCAC Pitcher of the Year honors. As I mentioned before, Tufts is yet to lose a game in which Hall pitches, so there is clearly something special going on every time he takes the mound. While this may be true, only one of these wins was by fewer than 4 runs and in that game Hall earned a no-decision. There’s no question that this guy knows how to pitch, but can he grind out a one-run victory in an NCAA Tournament game? Stay tuned to find out…
Prediction: Penn St-Harrisburg 9, Tufts 7