ATLANTA, Ga. – The Brandeis University baseball team dropped a pair of close games at Emory today, as the Judges lost a 2-1 pitcher's duel in the opener and a 13-9 slugfest in game two, despite erasing a six-run deficit for the second day in a row. With the losses, the Judges fall to 16-11, 6-9 in the University Athletic Association. The Eagles improve to 24-13, 11-4 UAA.
Game one was a duel between Brandeis grad student Mason Newman (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) and Emory's Joey Bock. Newman allowed seven hits and two earned runs, striking out four and hitting one batter but not walking anyone. It was his fourth complete game of the season and third in UAA play, but Newman fell to 3-3 on the season. Bock improved to 4-1 with seven innings of six-hit ball, allowing one earned run with five strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter. Emory's Aaron Mishoulam earned his fourth save by striking out four of the six batters he faced over the final two innings.
Emory opened the scoring in the fourth inning, when LF Henry Pelinski singled on the first pitch of the inning. He moved to second on a grounder two batters later and scored when DH Walker Woolf bounced one through the right side.
Brandeis answered in the next half-inning when grad student 3B Victor Oppenheimer (West Hills, Calif./Chaminade) reached on a bunt single with one out. He moved to third on a single by sophomore 2B Mike DiCenso (Cranston, R.I. / Moses Brown) and scored on a sacrifice fly by senior DH Liam Kennedy (Norwell, Mass./Milton Acad.).
The Eagles scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh when RF Jack Masonis led off with a single and scored three batters later on a pinch single to right-center field by Brok Liu.
Offensively, Brandeis got two hits from grad student 1B Mike Khoury (E. Bridgewater, Mass./E. Bridgewater), their only multiple hitter. Masonis was the only player with two hits for Emory.
The second game started out with both teams having an offensive explosion, with Brandeis striking for three in the top of the first and Emory answering with five in the bottom. Big hits for Brandeis in the inning were a two-run double from Oppenheimer and an RBI single by junior RF Steven Simon (Hanover, Mass./Hanover). Emory's five runs came on just two hits, as the Eagles drew two walks and took advantage of a pair of Brandeis errors.
The Eagles would increase their lead to 9-3 thanks to a Robby Wacker sac fly in the second and another error and an RBI single by Masonis for three runs in the third. The Judges responded by batting around in the fourth, scoring six runs on six singles and one Emory error that produced two runs. RBI singles came off the bats of DiCenso, sophomore LF Sam Nugent (Mansfield, Mass. / Mansfield), Khoury and grad student CF Dan Frey (Ipswich, Mass./St. John's Prep), the last of which tied the game at 9-all.
The Eagles shut down Brandeis from there, taking the lead in the sixth on a wild pitch that plated 1B Tyler McLoughlin that proved to be the winning run. A Pelinski sac fly in the seventh and a bases loaded walk and a Masonis sac fly in the eighth closed out the scoring.
Brandeis got two hits each from grad student DH Luke Hall (Georgetown, Mass./Georgetown), Frey and Simon, while Oppenheimer had two RBI. Hall also scored two runs. Emory DH Zeke Diamond reached base four times from the leadoff slot, going 4-4 with two walks, scoring four runs and driving in one. Liu added three hits, while Pelinski led the Eagles with three RBI.
Brandeis junior Reid Latham (North Easton, Mass. / Oliver Ames) suffered the loss in relief, allowing two hits and one runs in 2.1 innings of work with a walk and a strikeout. He falls to 1-1. Dylan Kahn threw 2.1 hitless inning, walking two, to improve to 2-1. Kyle Sulkowski earned his third save with 1.2 hitless innings, with two walks and two strikeouts.
Brandeis and Emory will meet in the series finale tomorrow at 1 p.m., pushed back from an 11 a.m. start.