The second-seeded baseball team suffered a tough 8-5 upset loss in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament to seventh-seeded Anna Maria College last Wednesday afternoon. Despite an early exit from the postseason, Brandeis finished its season at a solid 24-19, a marked improvement from the previous season.

"I think we had a great season," shortstop Dominic Schwartz '14 said. "It was a real improvement from the last couple years, and we got noticeably better as the year went on."

John McGrath '11, recently named to the All-University Athletic Association baseball team as a first-team selection at pitcher, could not get the job done, surrendering two earned runs while notching five strikeouts over six innings in his first loss of the season.

Catcher Chris Ferro '13 started off the action in the second inning with a sacrifice fly to give the Judges a 1-0 lead. However, McGrath could not hold the lead for the Judges in the top of the third inning, giving up three unearned runs. In the bottom of the frame, Brandeis quickly responded with two more runs to even the score at 3-3. First baseman Eric Rosenberg '11, who had three RBIs in a valiant effort to extend his career for another day, belted a two-run single to tie the game.

After an inning of scoreless action, Anna Maria regained control of the game in the fifth inning with back-to-back RBI singles, giving the AMCATS a 5-3 lead. Brandeis responded to cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning on another RBI by Rosenberg.

The game settled down until Anna Maria's bats came alive in the eighth inning. After getting the Judges out of a jam in the top of the seventh inning, Pat Nicholson '11 gave up three runs in the frame. "After loading the bases on a walk, an error and a hit batter, Nicholson struck out the next batter before ceding the game-changing hit. Sophomore third baseman Justin Hyland blasted a two-run double into the gap to give Anna Maria a 7-4 lead. Nicholson would give up another run on a wild pitch to keep the game at 8-4.

Outfielder Sean O'Hare '12 added an RBI single in the bottom of the frame, but the Judges would get no closer.

"We just didn't finish the way we wanted to," Schwartz said of the team's play down the stretch. "We had a rough stretch at the end where I think we could've played better and that carried over to the ECAC game. We made some costly mistakes and didn't capitalize when we had the chances."

Following the loss, the team will lose this year's crop of seniors, which includes Rosenberg, pitcher Rephael Stern, Nicholson (though he does have one more season of eligibility after missing last year with Tommy John surgery), McGrath and shortstop/outfielder Tony Deshler. Though the team will certainly suffer from losing key members, Schwartz said the team's future looks bright after a solid season.

"I think we can build off of this great season and have an even better one next year with a lot of talented incoming freshmen," he said. "Even though this season just ended, I'm already excited for the next one and eager to see what we're capable of.