NORTHBORO, Mass. – In their second-straight slugfest, the Brandeis University baseball team defeated Nichols College, 17-14, at the New England Baseball Complex in Northboro, Mass.
The big bat for the Judges today was wielded by sophomore centerfielder Dan Frey (Ipswich, Mass. / St. John's Prep), who went 3-5 with a whopping eight RBI, the most by a Judge in a game since at least 2003. His big blow was a grand slam in the fourth inning that turned a 7-4 deficit into an 8-7 lead that the Judges would never relinquish. Frey added an RBI single in the fifth, a two-run hit in the sixth and a sacrifice fly in the eighth that closed out the game's scoring.
The Judges had two other home runs besides Frey's grand slam, which was the fourth homer of his career. In the second inning, sophomore 1B Alex Parrott (Nashua, N.H. / Nashua South) and classmate DH Scott Ziegler (Avon, Conn. / Avon Old Farms) each hit solo homers. It was the first of the season and the second of the career for each. Ziegler finished with a game-high four hits, going 4-6 with an RBI, a double and three runs scored in addition to his round-tripper. One final top hitter for the Judges was junior 3B Isaac Fossas (Dudley, Mass. / Milton Academy), who went 2-4 with three RBI, a double and a team-high four run scored.
Nichols had three players with a pair of extra-base hits, as LF David Caron, 3B Christian Nacarri and 2B Nathanial Cormier each had a double and a home run on the afternoon. Cormier led the Bison with three hits, while he and catcher Kyle Dejardins each drove in three runs. Dejardins had a three-run home run in the fifth inning that cut the Brandeis lead from 13-7 to 13-10, but the Bison were unable to get closer than three runs the rest of the way.
Brandeis rookie Cam Roberts (Leominster, Mass / Nashoba Regional) got his first career start on the mound, allowing seven hits and seven runs (five earned), with a walk and a strikeouts in three innings. Classmate Christian Petrisko (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. / Westminster Academy) earned the win by throwing the next two innings, allowing four runs on just two hits, but one of those was Desjardins' home run. The top performance on the hill went to junior Kyle Shedden (Spencer, Mass. / David Prouty), who limited Nichols to just two hits and one earned run in four innings. Shedden struck out five of the 14 batters he faced and earned his first collegiate save.
Nichols used seven pitchers in the loss, with only the last one, Robert Cobb, going unscathed, as he allowed one hit with one K in the final 1.2 innings of work. Tony Martignolli, who allowed Frey's grand slam, suffered the loss.
After scoring 15 runs in a loss to Tufts yesterday, this marked the first time since 2011 that Brandeis scored 10 or more runs in back-to-back games, with the 32 runs in the two contests the most in consecutive contests since scoring 36 in the first two games of the 2007 season (27-0 over Norwich, 9-4 over Emory).
After four games in the last four days, Brandeis is off on Wednesday before returning to Northboro on Thursday to meet WPI for a 3:30 p.m. start.