Harwich, Mass. --- Tufts University junior Kyle Slinger (Danville, Calif.) spun a three-hit gem with nine strikeouts as he propelled the third-seeded Jumbos to a 3-1 victory over sixth-seeded St. Joseph's College of Maine this evening in the opening round of the NCAA Division III New England Baseball Regionals at Whitehouse Field.
Tufts (34-7) moves on to the winners' bracket contest tomorrow at 8 p.m., where it will take on the winner of the second-seeded University of Southern Maine/seventh-seeded Worcester State University game. The Monks (28-14) face off against the loser of the evening matchup between the Huskies and the Lancers at 1 p.m. to stave off elimination.
On an effective 116 pitches (82 strikes), Slinger yielded one earned run in his second complete game of the 2014 campaign as he improved to 9-0 overall. Slinger did not walk a batter.
St. Joseph's senior Nick Whittaker (Yarmouth, Maine) shouldered the setback for the Monks in a herculean effort that included 149 tosses (95 strikes) over 7 1/3 frames to keep his squad in the game. He allowed three runs (two earned), rung up eight on strikes and issued five free passes.
The Jumbos opened the games scoring with the 1-0 edge in the bottom of the second. Sophomore Matt Moser (Great Falls, Va.) led off the frame with a single up the middle and then he moved to second on a passed ball and came around to score on a RBI double by senior Nick Custumpas (White Plains, N.Y.) for an unearned tally.
St. Joseph's tied up the score 1-1 in the top of the fourth. Sophomore Taylor Reuillard (Biddleford, Maine) plated senior Nic Lorenc (Nanuet, N.Y.), who started the rally with a solo base-knock through the gap in the Tufts infield.
But the Jumbos answered back in the bottom of the same stanza. After junior Bryan Egan (Watervliet, N.Y.) singled to center, Tufts took full advantage of a wild pitch and scored the go-ahead tally when junior James Howard (Rockville Centre, N.Y.).
Tufts added some insurance in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by senior Wade Hauser (Palo Alto, Calif) to drive in freshman Tom Petry (Worcester, Mass.).
Pitching with the two-run lead, Slinger set down 13 straight until he ran into trouble in the top of the ninth. The Jumbos committed consecutive infield miscues with two outs, but Slinger induced a ground-out to third which ended the game.
Tufts outhit its opponents, 7-3, with no multi-hitters while Lorenc had both of St. Joseph's base-knocks.