The Brandeis baseball team began its 2019 season on Saturday with two wins over Bowdoin College at the New England Baseball Complex in Northborough, M.A. The Judges beat the Bowdoin Polar Bears 4-2 in the first game and 9-3 in the second. Then on Monday, the Judges faced Tufts University but were unable to pull out the win in the high scoring game and lost 17-15. Brandeis came back strong on Tuesday with a 17-14 win over Nichols College.
In their first game of the day, pitcher, Greg Tobin ’20 threw a complete game, only allowing three hits. Tobin had two strikeouts and walked three players. Brandeis secured two runs in the third, one off an RBI from catcher, Luke Hall ’21. The second single run was on a two-out single by shortstop, Mike Khoury ’20. Tobin only gave up a two-run home run which gave the Polar Bears their only runs of the game in the fourth inning. The Judges responded in the fourth when Hall hit his first career home run, to make the score 3-2. Only, two batters later, Dan O’Leary hit his third career home run to put the Judges up 4-2. This was enough to secure the Judges first win of the season.
After their first win, fellow pitcher Cam Roberts ’22 said, “Greg Tobin came out strong in the first game and pitched great. He was definitely a key contributor to our first win.”
The Judges weren’t done yet and came out even stronger in the second face-off against the Polar Bears. Brandeis scored in six of its seven innings in the second game, finishing with nine runs to Bowdoin’s three. The Judges scored three runs in the first inning.
Second baseman, Victor Oppenheimer ’20 was a key player in the Judges’ second victory, scoring two runs. He scored his first run in the bottom of the second off an RBI from Hall. Then in the bottom of the third, he hit his second career home run, putting the Judges up 8-2. Scott Ziegler ’21 and Khoury also each scored twice for the Judges. Alex Parrot ’21 and O’Leary both had three hits for Brandeis, and they both had an RBI.
On the pitching end, the Judges went through five pitchers in the second game. Albert Gutierrez ’20 finished the game with two scoreless innings. This was Gutierrez’ second career win, and he only allowed one hit. He also was able to strike out two batters.
The face-off between the Polar Bears and the Judges was also a face-off of two Brandeis Baseball Alumni. The head coach for the Judges is Derek Carlson ’91 and the head coach for the Polar Bears is Michael Connolly ’94.
On Monday, the Judges faced Tufts University and, despite their two six-run leads, the Judges were unable to hold off the Jumbos and lost in a high-scoring 17-15 game. The Judges led 5-4 at the end of the third inning after a two-run home run from O’Leary and an RBI double from Parrot. Brandeis continued its lead and scored five more runs in the fifth with Khoury’s two-run triple, and Oppenheimer’s two-run double. Hall scored four runs, while O’Leary and Oppenheimer drove in three each.
Next, on Tuesday, Dan Frey ’21 led the team driving in eight runs in their 17-14 victory over Nichols College. Frey went 3-5 and finished with eight RBIs, including a grand slam in the fourth inning that took the Judges from being down 7-4 to up 8-7. Frey had the most RBIs in a single game for a Judge since 2003.
Parrot and Ziegler also each had solo home runs. Zeigler led the team with four hits and finished with an RBI, a double and scored three additional runs.
For pitching, Cam Roberts ’22 and Christian Petrisko’ 22 each made their collegiate debuts, while Kyle Shedden ’20 kept Nichols to just two hits in four innings.
Looking on to the rest of the season, Scott Ziegler said, “Everyone is seeing the ball really well while hitting. The pitchers need to settle in which will come, especially with the leadership of Coach Morris. Once they do, I think it’s safe to say teams will have to watch out for the Judges.”
