<son came to a close for the Carleton College baseball teams following a pair of losses to Saint Mary’s University. The Knights let a late lead slip away in a 6-4 game one setback, then watched a final-frame rally come up just short in dropping game two, 5-4. Seniors Ted Harmon ‘13, Henry Rownd ‘13, and Adam Zweber ‘13 donned the Knights uniform for the final time.
Rownd, got the starting nod in game one and opened with five scoreless frames. All told he permitted only two runs on six hits with four strikeouts over 6.0 innings but ended up with a no decision.
Carleton broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth as Jeff Dsida ‘14 and David Stillerman ‘14 smacked consecutive run-scoring triples. Ray Yong ‘14 added a RBI double later in the stanza, putting the Knights in front 3-0.
Carleton still led, 3-2, heading into the final fame, but committed a pair of errors as Saint Mary’s pushed across four runs. Dsida and Stillerman opened the home half of the inning with singles, and Kevin Johnson ‘14 added a two-out base hit, but the Knights stranded the tying runs on base.
Saint Mary’s grabbed the lead in game two, plating a pair of unearned runs in the second inning. Carleton got a run back in the third on a Hayden Tsutsui ‘16 two-out, run-scoring double. Zweber then knotted the score with a sharply hit RBI grounder in the fourth.
Another fielding miscue paved the way for three more unearned runs in the top of the fifth.
The Cardinals still possessed a 5-2 advantage when Harmon emerged from the bullpen and concluded his career by mowing through the heart of the Saint Mary’s lineup for a 1-2-3 seventh inning.
Encouraged by Harmon’s effort, the Knights opened their final-frame rally when Jordan Zoellmer ‘16 worked a walk. Dsida followed with a single. After two outs, Yong smacked a single to left field that scooted past the defender. Two runs scored on the play, and Yong scampered all the way to third base. But the Carleton comeback would fall 90 feet short as the game ended one batter later on a routine grounder.
The Knights out-hit the Cardinals in both games, but clutch base hits proved just elusive enough on this day.
Carleton did re-write team history with the highest recorded season totals in program history for several categories, including runs (262), hits (365), and RBI (225).
Tsutsui wraps up the season with a .462 batting average, tops among MIAC players by nearly 50 points and second-best in recorded Carleton baseball history (behind Marvin Stoltz’s .494 campaign in 1989). Tsutsui also concludes the regular season with 91 total bases and a school-record 66 hits, with both totals topping the conference.
Dsida finished the year with seven triples and 51 runs scored, with both figures not only pacing the MIAC but also out-distancing the previous best in recorded Knights history.