Baseball Sustains Tough Early Season Home Losses

BRENT SCHOELLER ’21
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Trinity baseball team home debut was played against the Eastern Connecticut State Warriors on the Murren Family Field at DiBenedetto Stadium.  Unfortunately, the opener did not go as the Bantams had hoped for.  The team fell to the Warriors of Eastern Connecticut State by a score of 6-0.  The Warriors bats were buzzing early, scoring in four of the first five innings and scoring two runs in both the 3rd and 4th innings, respectively.  With the stellar pitching of the senior righty Sam Kosterich of Eastern Connecicut State, who tossed eight scoreless innings, it became a tall task for the Bantams to attempt to mount a comeback against the Warriors.  The few bright spots were catcher Alex Rodriguez ’20 who went 2 for 3 and threw a runner out stealing, and the work of the bullpen who allowed no runs in the final four innings after starter Alex Shafer ’20 was pulled.  With this loss, the Bantams fell to 2-5 on the season, and this would be their third straight.  Though a tough loss, the Bantams would attempt to get a win in their second home game against Brandeis to snap the streak. 

Trinity fought hard against Brandeis for much of the game, which was close until the Judges pulled away in the final few innings.  It was difficult for the Bantams to find much success facing Brandeis starter Greg Tobin, who struck out nine on his way to a complete game victory with only one run.  The Judges struck first with one run in the top of the 1st inning on a single from Isaac Fossas.  Then after 4 innings of scoreless baseball Brandeis scored again on a 2-out single that drove in another run.  However, after a hit in the gap of right-centerfield, center-fielder and senior captain Christian Orsini hit a triple and was driven in on a sacrifice fly, yet Tobin was able to get out of the inning with only the one run.   Then, Brandeis scored two runs in the 7th to give themselves a cushion while adding another run in the 9th.  After a nice start to the bottom of the 9th with two singles from Matthew Koperniak ’20 and Eric Thronson ’21, Tobin was again able to get out of the jam and seal the victory. The Bantams were now 2-6 on the season but would soon get a chance to break the four-game skid with a double-header against Westfield State the next day. 

The Bantams split the double-header with the Westfield State Owls to improve their record to 3-7 on the year.  Games that were supposed to be away became home games due to the unplayable conditions of Westfield State’s field. After falling 5-1 to the Owls in the first game, the Bantams turned it around for the second.  Trinity picked up their 3rd victory of the year in a close game.  The Bantams struck first with a run in the first inning thanks to an RBI-double from Koperniak.  The Owls quickly matched with a run of their own in the top of the 2nd inning, but the Bantams responded in the bottom of the second with a sacrifice fly from Johnny Stamatis ’19.  Then, after Westfield State scored again on a wild pitch, the Bantams were able to answer with their third run to change the score to 3-2. The Bantams closed it out in the seventh inning with a save from pitcher McLean Hill ’18. Trinity is back in action at Tufts on Friday for the start of NESCAC play.