The Justice

Media Credit: David Sheppard-Brick Shortstop Tony Deshler '11 sneaks behind a runner from?Clark University during last Saturday's doubleheader at home. The Judges took one of two games.

Last week's action saw the baseball team's bats catch fire as the Judges averaged 7.4 runs per game in five games with four players combined to hit six home runs. Unfortunately for Brandeis, the offensive success could not match that of its opponents as the Judges allowed 10 runs per game over the five-game stretch en route to a 1-4 week that put the team record at 11-14 with 18 games left in the season.

The Judges played all five games at home, opening with a loss to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 8-2 last Tuesday and then to Fitchburg State College 9-7 last Thursday. The team next split a doubleheader with Clark University last Saturday, taking the first game 13-6 and dropping the second 10-7 but closed out the week with a lopsided 17-8 defeat at the hands of Keene State College.

"The worst part is that we're scoring runs, then we'll give up a walk and make an error," assistant coach Brian Lambert '97 said. "We're scoring our runs by capitalizing on other teams' mistakes, but we're giving other teams those same opportunities, and they're killing us."

Last Sunday's 17-8 loss against Keene State featured six total home runs split evenly between the two teams. The Judges trailed by as few as two runs at 7-5 in the fifth inning but gave up three runs in the top of the sixth inning to fall behind 10-5. Keene State never looked back as the Owls continued to outscore the Judges 7-3 over the final three innings.

Keene State's outpouring of runs came with 20 total team hits, nine of which were for extra bases. The Owls scored in double digits for the 10th time in only 19 games this season as they lifted their team batting average to .370.

Brandeis starting pitcher Kyle Ritchie '10 took the brunt of the abuse and the eventual loss for the Judges, lasting 5 1/3 innings and surrendering 10 runs, seven of which were earned, to fall to 1-3 on the season.

"[Ritchie] wasn't necessarily making bad pitches and missing spots," third baseman Tony Deshler '11 said. "They were a really good hitting team. They'd hit balls out of the zone and then anything."

Continued...

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