Over the past week, the Brandeis baseball team started out strong with a win away against Western New England University. Then, playing on the road against Trinity College and Rhode Island College this past weekend, they failed to come out on top, losing both games.

Judges 1, Rhode Island 2

On Sunday, Brandeis fell just short to Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island. Brandeis started out strong in the top of the first inning with center fielder Ryan Tettemer ’17 hitting a double. He then stole third and was able to score, giving Brandeis the 1-0 lead. The rest of the game continued slowly as senior pitcher Liam Coughlin ’17 held off Rhode Island throughout most of the game. However, by the bottom of the eighth inning, Rhode Island pushed back by scoring two runs. With just one inning left, Brandeis was not able to come back in the top of the ninth, leaving the victory to Rhode Island by one.

Judges 0, Trinity 9

The first few innings against Trinity started off slow with neither team scoring. By the bottom of the third, Trinity began to pick up the pace with a run. With Trinity only leading by one in the top of the fourth, Brandeis still had time to catch up. Junior pitcher Sean O’Neil ’18 was in to do his best against the Trinity batters. Unfortunately, by the end of the bottom of the fourth, he had given up four runs, leaving Brandeis with a five run deficit. Again, in the top of the fifth, Brandeis continued to struggle at the plate, which allowed Trinity to pull even more ahead in the bottom of the fifth with another three runs, making the score 8-0.

Throughout the next two innings, the Brandeis defense was able to hold off Trinity for a bit as neither team scored in those innings. By the bottom of the eighth, Trinity was able to sneak in one more run, and with no more runs by either team in the ninth, the final score was  9-0. Although Trinity won the game, Brandeis made some good plays as Tettemer and right fielder Anthony Nomakeo ’17 combined for two hits and designated hitter Kyle Lussier ’19 had three hits throughout the game. With 10 total hits, they had only one less than Trinity, who had a total of eleven hits. Unfortunately, although Brandeis made some great plays, they were unable to score.

Judges 4, Western New England 1

On Thursday, Brandeis and Western New England started off slow, scoring no runs for the first few innings. By the bottom of the fourth, Western New England had picked up the pace and scored once, bringing the lead to 1-0. However, rookie pitchers Albert Gutierrez ’20 and Greg Tobin ’20 held off the Western New England batters, only allowing one run and four hits total throughout the game. The Brandeis fielding allowed the squad to come back in the last two innings of the game.

From there, Brandeis was still down by one in the top of the eighth, but that did not affect their focus. In the top of the eighth, rookie second baseman Tim Lopez ’20 had a nice hit that got him on base. He then scored on a throwing error, tying the game 1-1. By the top of the ninth with the game still tied, the Judges did not hold back. Shortstop Jay Schaff ’17, Tettemer and rookie first baseman Joshua Rakowsky ’20 all scored, leading to a total of three runs in the ninth and giving Brandeis a 4-1 lead. Although Western New England started out with the lead, they fell short to the unstoppable power that Brandeis had and did not have enough in them to ultimately pull ahead.  The team will look to pick up its sixth win of the season at home against Amherst College today.  The final game of the season is scheduled for Wednesday at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.