It was a disappointing week for the baseball team, as the Bears lost all six games of their West Coast road trip before dropping three of their first four conference games of the season against Princeton and Cornell.
"We didn't pitch it great, and we didn't hit very well at all," said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. "If you don't pitch and you're not hitting, you're not going to win many games."
"I don't know how much worse we can play, so for us to go 1-3, we're pretty fortunate," he added. "We've got some work to do. There's no question."
The Santa Clara University Broncos (12-13) swept the Bears (3-15, 1-3 Ivy League) in the first four-game series of their West Coast stretch March 26-28. Brown was outscored 48-10 in the series.
Catcher Matt Colantonio '11 doubled and scored on an RBI single by first baseman Pete Greskoff '11 in the fourth inning of game one. Greskoff, in turn, scored on a double by third baseman Ryan Zrenda '11, making the score 2-0.
In the fifth inning, shortstop Graham Tyler '12 doubled then scored after a sacrifice bunt by second baseman J.J. Franco '14 and an RBI single by center fielder Matt DeRenzi '14, giving Bruno a 3-0 lead. It was the only time the Bears had a lead in the series.
The Broncos rallied for five runs in the sixth inning and went on to win 8-3.
Game two was closer, as the Broncos led by just one run until a three-run rally in the bottom of the eighth inning put them on top 5-1. But Santa Clara took all the Bears' hopes of winning away in the last two games. The Broncos scored 11 and 12 times before Brown got on the board en route to 18-3 and 17-3 blowouts, respectively.
The Bears continued on to play a two-game set against San Jose State University March 29-30. Bruno started off well in the first game, as center fielder John Sheridan '13 hit a leadoff double and scored on Colantonio's RBI double to give Brown a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Spartans tied the game in the bottom of the inning, but Greskoff's bases-loaded walk in the fourth gave the Bears a 2-1 lead.
But things fell apart for Brown after that, and the Bears lost 9-4. They then lost 11-4 in the second game.
After being swept in California, the Bears headed to Princeton for the beginning of the Ivy League conference season.
The team got off to a poor start in game one of the two-game series April 2, as the Tigers scored six runs on nine hits in the first two innings to jump out to an early 6-0 lead. Clutch hits from designated hitter Mike DiBiase '12, Zrenda, Tyler and third baseman Cody Slaughter '13 fueled a three-run Bruno rally in the seventh inning, but it was not enough and the Bears fell 7-4.
The Tigers gained an 8-0 lead in the second inning of game two and had stretched their lead to 11-1 by the fourth. Bruno managed only two runs the entire game, losing 12-2.
The Bears picked up their first Ivy League victory of the season against Cornell in the first game of a doubleheader April 3. A pair of Cornell throwing errors helped Bruno produce two runs in the third inning, and right fielder Josh Feit '11 hit a clutch three-run home run in the seventh inning. Starting pitcher Heath Mayo '13 secured the win after allowing just one earned run on five hits in six innings, while Feit notched his second save of the season after shutting down the Big Red in the bottom of the seventh to secure the 5-2 victory.
"It was a relief," Drabinski said. "It was nice to get that first (win)."
Bruno took a commanding 6-2 lead in the fifth inning of game two after Greskoff's three-run homer, but Cornell gained the lead after an eight-run rally in the sixth. The Big Red went on to win 13-8.
Bruno is next in action when it hosts Quinnipiac University at 3:30 p.m. today in its home opener at Murray Stadium.
