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BY MELINDA PETRE

In print | April 3, 2008

The Swarthmore baseball team (7-8, 1-3 CC) defeated Washington College (5-8, 1-3 CC) 15-3 on Friday, earning its first Centennial Conference win of the season. Scott Dalane ’08 led the team with four runs, six hits in as many at-bats and three RBIs. Additionally, Swarthmore saw offensive contributions from the majority of its lineup, with many players earning hits, RBIs and runs. Pitcher Neil Mejia ’11 (3-2) picked up his first career conference win.

This was an important win for Swarthmore, which was only just coming off its loss at Washington on Tuesday.

“The loss [on Tuesday] served as a bit of a wake-up call. Friday’s win was confirmation that we can compete in this conference,” said Conor Casey ’09.

“We didn’t let Tuesday’s game affect Friday’s, we were confident that we could beat them all along,” Jimmy Gill ’10 said.

The team is excited about the message their win sends to the rest of the conference, particularly “that we are not just the same old Swarthmore,” according to Wiley Archibald ’10. “With each win we not only improve, but also earn more respect,” he said.

The team shares Archibald’s optimistic outlook. “It says a lot about our team’s resilience to come back after a demoralizing defeat on Tuesday and really stick it to them,” Ben Schneiderman ’11 said.

On Saturday, the team traveled to Baltimore to the field of defending Centennial Conference Champion #21 Johns Hopkins University (14-3, 4-0 CC), where it suffered hard losses, 12-1 and 18-2. “We knew we were going to face a team that executes in all areas of the game. We respected them, but we did not go down there afraid,” explained Gill.

In the first game, pitcher Andy Allen ‘11 (0-1) recorded five strikeouts in five innings, only allowing six hits. Schneiderman (0-1) got the team off to an equally impressive start in the second game pitching the first two innings. “We knew that those games were not going to be easy, but that win or lose, if we played our game, we would come out strong and walk away that much better,” Archibald said. "The scoreboard doesn’t reflect everything that really happened in the game."

“We played hard the entire day and did not quit no matter what the score,” Gill added.

The team takes important lessons away from these losses. “We learned a lot from Saturday’s losses — if our pitchers keep pitching as well as they did against Hopkins, we’re going to win a lot of games this year. All you can do is tip your cap to the Hopkins hitters when they take great pitches and turn them into hits,” Schneiderman said.

“I’m very impressed with all the freshmen. They all play without fear, and hard,” Casey said.

Although Tuesday’s matchup against Ursinus has been postponed due to poor field conditions, Swat baseball will face them twice this week. They played yesterday, a game which finished too late for this edition, and then will play at Ursinus on Friday afternoon. The Garnet is optimistic about these games. “They’re a playoff team, so they’re good, but I still think they’re very beatable,” Casey said. “If we play like we can, though, the Bears are going to walk away very surprised,” Archibald said.

“We just need to play within ourselves, and when we bring our intensity to the field we’re confident that we can play with anyone,” Schneiderman said.

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