The baseball team traveled to take on the Troy Trojans and New Orleans Privateers before opening Ivy League play with two games each against both Penn and Columbia. The Bears' week got off to a tough start, as the team lacked consistency, but they ended the week on a strong note.
Troy 4 games, Brown 0
To open the week, the Bears traveled to Alabama to take on Troy. But in all four games the Bears were overmatched by the Trojans' offense. In the series, Troy scored 9, 6, 11 and 26 runs respectively.
The closest game of the series was game two, when the Bears fell, 6-3. In the game, the Trojans got out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning and never looked back. In the loss, Matt Colantonio '11 was 2-5 with an RBI and Graham Tyler '12 was 2-4 with an RBI.
New Orleans 2 games, Brown 0
The Bears next went to New Orleans to take on the Privateers in a two-game series. In the first game, Brown got off to a fast start, leading 7-0 by the top of the third inning.
But Brown could not hold the lead. New Orleans fought back with two runs in the third inning, four runs in the fourth, one in the sixth and four more in the eighth to go on to the 11-10 victory. In the loss, Pete Greskoff '11 went 2-4 with 3 RBI, Daniel Rosoff '12 was 2-5 with an RBI and Ryan Zrenda '11 was 3-4 with a run scored.
The next day, the Bears came out looking for revenge but found themselves trailing 3-0 after the second inning. Brown had a late rally, but New Orleans held on for the 5-3 victory.
In the loss, Brown got some good pitching, led by starter Matt Boylan '10, who gave up three runs in five innings.
"At times, we pitched the ball very well, and at times we hit very well," Colantonio wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "We ran into trouble during the trip because we were not able to put the two together and dominate a game like we are capable of doing."
Penn 1 game, Brown 1
Brown left the South and traveled to Penn to open Ivy League play. Needing a win badly, Brown's bats came out of the gate strong and the Bears led 5-1 after three innings.
But Brown's pitching could not hold the lead as Penn's offense came alive to score seven runs in the final three innings, and Brown fell 8-6. In the loss, Zrenda was 2-3 with one run scored, Josh Feit '11 was 3-4 with three runs scored, and Mike DiBiase '12 was 3-3 with two RBI.
In game two against Penn, Brown desperately needed a win to avoid falling to 0-2 in the Ivy League. But, heading into the fourth inning Brown trailed, 5-2.
Brown rallied late though, tying it up in the fifth inning on after Tyler and Greskoff knocked runs in.
The game remained tied until the eighth inning, when the Bears took the lead with four runs. They then backed it up with two more in the ninth. Brad Kottman '13 got the win for Brown, pitching three scoreless innings out of the bullpen to secure the 11-5 win.
Columbia 1 game, Brown 1
The next day, Brown traveled to New York to take on Columbia. The game remained scoreless going into the middle innings. But Columbia eventually pulled away and went on to the 7-0 win.
In game two, Brown took the field behind starting pitcher Matt Kimball '11, needing a win. Kimball pitched a gem, going six innings and only giving up one run.
Offensively, Brown took the lead with four runs in the fifth inning when Tyler and Greskoff each had 2 RBI.
Brown's bullpen was able to fend off a late rally by Columbia and Andrew Bakowski '11, who pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings, got the win.
The Bears hope to take momentum from the split against a good Columbia team. "I'm happy where we are heading into conference play," said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. "To split with Columbia after the way we had been playing was great, but we've definitely got a lot more work to do."
The series split leaves Brown in contention for the Ivy title. "None of the teams in our division won more than two games this week, so we are still in good position to get to the championship series," Greskoff wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "We have three mid-week games to get our hitters going heading into the weekend, and we need to win three or four games this weekend since we are at home. Our goal is still to win the league and we are in good position to do that."
