With their backs against the wall, the men’s baseball team needed a sweep against against NESCAC East-leader Bowdoin College to get into the NESCAC playoffs but fell one game short, sandwiching a tough 4-0 loss in between two impressive wins, 11-7 and 6-1. The weekend against Bowdoin was a microcosm of the season for the Jumbos, as they showed flashes of their potential, but were unable to sustain their success throughout the weekend.
“It’s bittersweet. It was definitely bittersweet,” said junior tri-captain Nick Cutsumpas. “It’s good to know we can beat good teams, but it’s frustrating at the same time to know that we can beat those teams and still not be in the playoffs because our play is inconsistent.”
In their first game against Bowdoin, the team showed off some of the things it has been doing so well this season, as it secured some timely late-game hitting, along with a strong relief performance from freshman pitcher Andrew David, who took home his first NESCAC Pitcher of the Week award this past week.
The Jumbos scored runs in each of their first five innings, and after Bowdoin put up five runs in the second they were able to hold the Polar Bears to two runs for the rest of the game.
In the second game of the series, however, Bowdoin’s vaunted pitching staff, which boasts an ERA of 2.99, put together an impressive performance as they shut down the Jumbos at the plate. Junior starter Christian Martin and sophomore reliever Henry Van Zant combined to blank Tufts over seven innings, racking up a combined 10 strikeouts in the process.
With the loss, the Jumbos found themselves out of the playoffs for a second straight year. Despite the disappointment, Tufts was still able to put together an impressive win in their last divisional game of the year, as junior tri-captain Christian Sbily tossed a one-run complete game, and the offense put up six runs in the last two innings, to finish with a 7-5 record in the NESCAC East.
“I think it speaks a lot about our team’s character and our team’s will to win, that we played that third game with the same level of intensity as the first two,” Sbily said. “All the guys were still up and energetic, and the attitude and effort was still the same, and that speaks to what Tufts’ baseball is: playing as hard as you can no matter the circumstances.”
Although their season will end prematurely, there were plenty of positive signs for a still young team throughout the year, as Tufts sits third in the NESCAC with a team ERA of 3.54. On top of that, the Jumbos went 5-1 against Trinity and Bowdoin, but were only 2-4 against Bates and Colby, the bottom two teams of the division. For a team that is still growing, those are both impressive numbers that add to the sting of not making the playoffs despite having one of the better all-around teams on paper.
“We picked our head up, we didn’t keep our heads down and [we kept] working hard,” Cutsumpas said. “It was encouraging when [we] beat teams like Trinity, but we lost focus on what made us successful in those wins. And if you can’t keep the same approach, you’re not going to have the same success.”
Now, the Jumbos are just looking to end the season on a high note and head into the offseason with something positive to look back on.
“There’s always flashes, and that’s encouraging,” Cutsumpas said. “Looking to next year, we get to bring back most of our guys, but it’s enough time to talk, and it’s time to start doing. That’s something we didn’t do this year, but we’re going to work our butts off in the offseason to get to where we need to be physically and mentally.”
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