CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Brandeis University baseball team rode the left arm of junior Greg Tobin (Medfield, Mass./Catholic Memorial School) and the hot bat of sophomore catcher Luke Hall (Georgetown, Mass./Georgetown) to a 5-3 victory of Case Western Reserve University in the first game of a four-game University Athletic Association series today. The Judges improve to 14-17, 2-11 in the UAA with their second-straight conference win, while the Spartans fall to 20-12, 5-6 UAA.
Tobin was masterful for seven innings today, allowing just two runs on two hits. He walked four and hit two batters, but struck out nine, a season-best and on shy of a career-best. Tobin improved to 4-3 on the season and lowered his ERA to 3.91 after allowing two earned runs or fewer for the fifth time in seven starts.
Hall produced his second four-hit game of the season and of his career, going 4-4 with two doubles, two RBI and a run scored. He drove in a run in the first inning with a single and added an RBI double in the fifth.
After the Judges got on the board in the top of the first, CWRU answered with a run of their own in the bottom without benefit of a hit, taking advantage of some early wildness from Tobin, who issued a walk and hit two of the first four batters of the game to load the bases. Spartan catcher Tyler Wypiszinski delivered a sacrifice fly to knot the game at 1-1.
In the top of the fourth, Hall delivered a one-out double, then scored on an error by the CWRU second baseman. The Judges padded their lead in the fifth, when sophomore 1B Isaac Fossas (Dudley, Mass./Milton Academy) doubled in two runs with two outs, and Hall followed with his second two-bagger of the game to make it 5-1.
Case Western Reserve got their first hit off Tobin in the bottom of the fifth, when Jacob Lott singled up the middle. Tobin got a strikeout and issued a walk to the next batter, then threw a wild pitch to put the runners in scoring position. CWRU's star second baseman Rocco Maue brought home a run with a grounder to short, but that was all the damage that Tobin allowed.
After Tobin issued a lead-off walk to Maue in the eighth, rookie Marc Maestri (Katonah, N.Y./Somers) came on in relief. Maestri got out the inning with a line-drive double play. Though the hosts pushed home a run in the ninth, Maestri got a foul popout to end the game and earn his third save of the season.
In addition to Hall, Fossas and junior second baseman Victor Oppenheimer (West Hills, Calif./Chaminade) each had two hits. All of the Judges' first five batters scored runs in the game.
CWRU's Matt Levine suffered the loss for the home team, giving up all five runs (four earned) on seven hits in five innings of work. He struck out three and walked two. Tony Smodilla was effective for the Spartans in relief, allowing just one hit and one walk over the final four innings.
Brandeis and Case Western Reserve will meet tomorrow for a doubleheader starting at 12 noon.