Baseball celebrates Patriot's Day early with marathon DH against WashU on Senior Day

WALTHAM, Mass. – The Judges dropped the opener of a University Athletic Association doubleheader against #15 Washington University, 7-5, and fell in the nightcap, 14-9, in a game that lasted more than four hours.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: 17-14, 8-8 UAA.

• Washington U.: 26-9, 10-6 UAA, ranked #15 by D3baseball.com.

HOW IT HAPPENED, GAME ONE (WashU 7, Brandeis 5)

• The Bears raced out to a 6-0 lead and hung on for the two-run win in the opener.

• WashU scored four runs on four hits in the second inning, with Cooper Greene and Josh Erpenbeck each hitting RBI doubles in the frame.

• They added two more in the fifth on a Jacob Witte sacrifice fly and another RBI double from Greene that made it 6-0.

• WashU starter Townsend Stevenson limited Brandeis to just one hit through the first five innings, but worked around walks and hit batters.

• The Judges spoiled the shutout bid in the bottom of the sixth when sophomore DH Keith Lee (Milford, Mass./Milford) drilled a leadoff home run to left field.

• After junior LF Henry Aronwald (Rye Brook, N.Y./Trinity Pawling) singled to chase Stevenson from the game, Brandeis loaded the bases with two out thanks to a pair of walks, and a wild pitch brought home the second run of the frame, but the Judges couldn't scratch home another.

• The Bears tacked on an insurance run in the eight to make it 7-2, but Brandeis made things interesting in their final at-bat.

• After reliever Jay Ronning issued a leadoff walk, the Bears' next reliever of the inning, Alex Ardemagni induced a 4-6-3 double play. WashU followed with a wild throw that extended the inning. Sophomore 1B Danny Tambascia (Newton, Mass./Newton North) followed with an RBI triple to make it 7-3, and Lee drilled his second homer of the game to get the home team within 7-5. Bear closer Parker Guthrie then came in and got the final out of the game for his fourth save of the season.

• Lee led the Brandeis attack, going 2-4 with two homers and three RBI. The blasts were his second and third of the season and the sixth and seventh of his career.

• Tambascia (2-4, R, RBI, 3B) was the Judges' only other multiple hitter.

• Sophomore John Milewski (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) took the loss, falling to 2-1 on the season. He allowed four hits and four earned runs in two innings, striking out one with two walks and a hit batter.

HOW IT HAPPENED, GAME TWO (Washington U. 14, Brandeis 9)

• The nightcap was a sloppy affair, with the teams issuing 22 walks and nine hit batters, plus six errors in the field that led to nine unearned runs.

• WashU scored three in the first with just one hit, and four more in the third on three hits and two Brandeis errors.

• Brandeis got an RBI double from first-year DH Colby Harrington (W. Springfield, Mass. / W. Springfield) in the bottom of the second, then scored three times on two hits, an error and two bases-loaded walks in the third, making it 7-4.

• A walk, a hit batter, a single by Tambascia and another hit batter brought in a Brandeis run in the bottom of the fourth. Bear head coach Pat Bloom summoned Guthrie, and he stopped the bleeding, striking out the next two batters.

• Guthrie would go on to strike out seven of the first 10 Judges he faced as the visitors added a run in the fifth and three more in the seventh to go ahead by six, 11-5.

• As Guthrie went out for his fourth inning of work, he retired the first two batters, but Brandeis first-year SS Noah Koong (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake) drove a triple. That was followed by two walks, an error that scored a run, and two more bases-loaded walks to get the Judges' deficit back down to 11-8.

• WashU's Shane Pellegrino finished a big game with a three-run double in the top of the eighth that pushed the lead back to six at 14-8.

• Tambascia finished a 3-5 performance with an RBI single in the ninth that made the final 14-9 score.

• In addition to the offensive fireworks with the bats, WashU was aggressive on the base paths, setting a UAA record with 13 stolen bases.

• Guthrie earned the win with 3.1 innings of one-hit ball, striking out seven. He allowed three unearned runs and improves to 4-1 on the season.

• Brandeis's Dimitri Skourides (Arlington, Mass./Winchendon School) took the loss, falling to 2-3.

SENIOR DAY

• Before the first game, the Judges honored their lone senior and two graduate students

• Senior pitcher Cooper Gavin (Beverly, Mass / Beverly)

• Grad student pitcher Jacob Maurer (Dayton, Ohio / Archbishop Carroll) and

• Grad student pitcher Malcolm Hsu (Cupertino, Calif. / St. Francis)

UP NEXT

• The Judges close out their UAA schedule next weekend with a four-game series in Atlanta against Emory University, starting next Friday at 3 p.m.