Since the last publication of The Hoot, the Brandeis Judges baseball team has played 10 games against Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Endicott, New York University (NYU) and Dean College. Brandeis lost all of these games with the notable exception of a 11-3 victory against Dean, on the day before press time.
From April 5-7, the Judges played four games against CWRU in Cleveland, Ohio. In the first game on April 5, CWRU scored early, taking their first point in the second inning. In the 3rd, Henry Aronwald ’27 scored a walk, and then took home on a single and two-out, but the CWRU Spartans took back their lead with a point in their half of the inning. In the fourth, Brandeis loaded the bases, and hits from Dylan Walsh ’27 and Matt Chafin ’27 allowed Brandeis to regain their lead 3-2. But the Spartans were able to retake the lead with a home run and a blast to center, and their pitching prevented any of Brandeis’ base runners from scoring in the next innings. The final score was a 5-3 loss for Brandeis.
The Judges’ next game against Case Western on April 6 was an 0-8 loss. Despite good hits in the early game from Jake Freed (GRAD), Brian King (GRAD) and CJ Dunston ’26, they were unable to advance past the Spartan’s pitching. Despite allowing only six hits from Case Western, they still scored eight points, starting with five in the first inning and steadily climbing up afterwards.
Later the same day, the Judges and Spartans played again. Again, the Spartans started out strong, while the Judges were unable to score. But in the sixth inning, Freed, King and Mike DiCenso ’24 all made it home with help from Justin Keeler ’25. These three points were all that the Judges were able to score, leaving the final score at 3-7.
The next day, April 7, the Judges had a disappointing performance as they only got six hits throughout the entire game, compared to the Spartans’ 17 hits. Two of these hits came from King, and one from Freed, who scored a double, but it was not enough to score. The final score was 0-12, with yet another loss for the Judges.
On April 10, the Judges arrived at Beverly, MA to play against Endicott. Three singles allowed Endicott to score a point in the second inning, but Brandeis was unable to score in return. In the fifth, Walsh took first and stole second, but found himself unable to get to third. In the eighth, Endicott scored again. In the next inning, the Judges tried to make a comeback. Chafin, DiCenso and Eddie Zanor (GRAD) loaded the bases, but Endicott’s pitcher managed to hold them back for the rest of the inning. The final score was a 2-0 loss.
The Judges came back to Waltham on April 13 to play twice against NYU. Their first game was a 19-16 loss, but was extremely close, lasted three and a half hours and established a season-high in both runs and hits. Zanor came out swinging, literally, with a two-run shot in the first inning. Then he got another in the second and along with a double from Alex Kim ’26 won a 5-1 lead over NYU, who responded by scoring seven times in the next two innings. King managed a run, but the NYU Violets widened the lead to 14-6. Brandeis recovered and came up on top 15-14; NYU scored another and tied. The game had to go to a bonus inning, during which NYU scored a four point lead. On Brandeis’ turn, the Judges loaded the bases and King was walked, but three strikeouts from the Violet’s pitcher kept the other two runners at bay, leaving the final score as 19-16.
The second game of the day lasted almost as long as the first. In the first inning, Freed got a walk, then stole the rest of the bases. NYU responded by scoring another 9. Walsh and Connor Crawley ’27 scored two doubles, which combined with two wild pitch runs brought Brandeis to within 4 points of NYU’s lead. However, NYU continued to expand their lead. The final score was a 15-7 loss for Brandeis.
The next day saw two more games against NYU. The first game started strongly for the Violets and they kept their lead for the rest of the game, although Brandeis scored six in the third inning. The second game of the day was more of the same, with Brandeis only able to score two points in the fifth and another two in the seventh. King scored a double, two runs batted in and a run in the opener. Tobei Nakaijima ’27 had two RBI’s and a run in the first game, and Zanor scored a run in the second game. The final scores for the games were 18-6, 16-4.
On April 17, the Judges, remaining at Waltham, played against Dean. Things went off to a great start in the first inning as Aronwald, Walsh and King each scored. In the second, a hit by Zanor led to an error that gave Brandeis another two runners. Then, in the third, Aronwald scored on a hit by Dunston, and in the fourth, King and Aronwald scored on a sacrifice by Walsh and a hit by Dunston. In the fifth, Zanor hit another sacrifice, and DiCenso and Crowley excecuted a double steal. A single by Aronwald allowed Brandeis to score its last point of the game. Dean had scored twice in the third, and once in the sixth, but this time Brandeis took home the victory, 11-3.
For the rest of the year, the Judges will play against Washington University in St. Louis from April 19-21, and Amherst on April 23. They will wrap up the year by playing Emory from April 26-28, and finally against Wheaton on May 1.
