The men’s baseball team traveled to University Athletic Association rival New York University this past weekend. The squad came away with three victories, 3-1 on Sunday and 4-2 and 11-8 on Saturday. 

The three games marked NYU’s first home games in 42 years.

This is NYU’s first season fielding a baseball team since the 1974 season in which it went 0-14.

The Violets, which are composed of 22 freshmen out of a total of 29 players, play their home games at MCU Park. 

The stadium is the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, the New York Mets’ Minor League Single A affiliate team.

JUDGES 3, NYU 1

The squad got on the board first in the third inning of Sunday’s 3-1 win when outfielder Ryan Healy ’16 singled to the right side, scoring center fielder Liam O’Connor ’16. Pitching was the key to the Judges’ victory as pitcher Sean O’Neill ’18 threw seven shutout innings.

With the win, O’Neill improved to an impressive record of 3-1 on the season.

This was his fourth outing in which he went at least seven innings in the contest.

In the game, he threw a total of 102 pitches, 65 of which painted the strike zone. 

O’Neill allowed only four hits and three walks while striking out two batters. 

It was the third meeting of the season between O’Neill and Violets pitcher freshman Cameron Serapillo-Frank.

O’Neill pitched well throughout but ran into trouble in the seventh.

After allowing a walk and a base hit, Violets freshman pitch hitter Sam Raskin put a sharp ball into right field.

Healy picked up the ball in the outfield and was able to throw out the runner at the plate and mantain the close 1-0 lead.

Closer Brent Edmunds ’15 came in for O’Neill and proceeded to get the two-inning save while allowing one run and two hits. 

First baseman Tom McCarthy ’15 knew that the squad was prepared for this conference test. “We were pretty familiar with NYU, since we had played two times before this weekend. We knew that they were a young team, and we just wanted to get an early lead and let our pitching take care of the rest.“

O’Connor led the offense for the day, going 3-3 with a run scored.

Healy added two hits on the day along with his big defensive play.

JUDGES 11, NYU 8 

In the second game on Saturday, the Judges found themselves trailing early. The Violets had pushed across a run in the first inning for their first-ever lead in their new home field. The team used a five-run third inning to take a commanding lead. Designated hitter Ryan Pocock ’18 started off the scoring with a two-run single to the outfield. Later in the same inning, McCarthy hit a sole home run to right field for his first of the season. 

In the very next at bat, third baseman Greg Heineman ’16 stretched his shot to right field for an inside-the-park home run. The back-to-back home runs gave the Judges a 5-1 lead. 

The squad would add another run in the fourth when O’Connor came home on a double from shortstop Nick Falkson ’18. Catcher Connor Doyle ’16 and outfielder Ryan Tettemer ’17 added RBIs in the fifth.

Pitcher Justin Freeman ’17 picked up his first win of the season after coming in for relief of starter Liam Coughlin ’17. Closer Anthony Nomakeo ’17 worked the last two innings of the game for his first career save.   

JUDGES 4, NYU 2

Pitcher Sam Miller ’16 led the Judges to a complete game victory in the first game of the doubleheader. In NYU’s first home game of the season, Miller went the full seven innings in 117 pitches, 77 of them being strikes. Miller allowed nine hits and only one earned run. He also struck out three batters while giving up one walk. 

The third inning again marked the turning point for the squad in the game. With the game still scoreless, Pocock singled with the bases loaded to drive in the first two runs of the contest. Later in the third, McCarthy singled to drive in Healy.

With the Judges still leading 3-1 in the top of the seventh, pinch runner Ryan Tettemer ’16 scored on a pass ball to increase the team’s lead to three runs. 

The win marked Miller’s second complete game of the season and pushed his overall record to 3-1 on the year. 

McCarthy and the team were content with their performance on the weekend. “This weekend was a testament to what we are capable of doing as a team. From top to bottom, everyone did their job. We had some hot bats, and our pitching staff was able to nail it down,” he said. 

For the two games on Saturday as a whole, the Judges had a few impressive offensive performances. Pocock went 4-7 on the afternoon and added four RBIs to his team-high 18. 

Pocock is 11 RBIs ahead of Doyle, who sits second on the team with seven of his own. 

McCarthy went 3-7 in the two games while Falkson continued his streak of a basehit in every single game, now up to  17. 

This is the longest such streak since the 2008 season when Drake Livada ’10 had a hit in 17 games. 

With the three wins on the weekend, Head Coach Pete Varney now has 699 career wins, one away from becoming the 29th coach to reach 700 wins in Division III history. This is Varney’s 34th season at the helm of the team. 

McCarthy is confident about the team’s chances for the rest of the regular season. 

He remarked, “We want to keep this streak going, and I'm confident we will. We just need to continue our hard work in practice, stay together as a team and do our jobs when the situation presents itself.”

With the wins on the weekend, the Judges have improved their overall record to 7-10.

The games were the team’s first playing at an opponent’s stadium. 

Previously, all contests this season were played at a neutral site. 

The team will next play next against Rhode Island College at home on Thursday.