HAMPTON, VA. – The Apprentice School baseball team was swept in a doubleheader by Tufts University on Saturday falling 6-4 and 16-12 at War Memorial Stadium.
In the opener, the Builders managed four hits and scored all four of their runs in the third inning. Andrew Hooper started the inning with a walk and stole second. The throw went through the centerfielders legs which allowed Hooper to make it to third where he scored on a double from Josh Tuck. Following a strikeout, Andrew Yonta smashed a three-run home run scoring Tuck and Ryan Wagner who had earlier walked to put the Builders up 4-3.
Tufts pushed two across in the sixth and an insurance run in the seventh to take the 6-4 decision. Four Builders had a hit each in the opener as freshman Ethan Halberg took the loss, his first in eight decisions.
In the nightcap, both teams went wild in the last two innings combining to score 19 of the 28 total runs in the final two innings. Tufts scored three in the top of the fourth, only to see the Builders double that to take a 6-3 lead after five. Run-scoring singles from Tuck and Jonathan Dehoux were followed by a run-scoring double from Yonta and a two-run double from Dory Fields to give the Builders the 6-3 lead.
After that is when the runs lit up the scoreboard. Tufts put up five runs in the sixth to take an 8-6 advantage. Apprentice School pushed a run across in their half of the sixth on a one-out single from Wagner to score Hooper.
In the seventh, the Jumbos sent eight men to the plate before recording the first out of the inning. A two-run double from Ian Goldberg highlighted the eight-run outburst to put Tufts ahead 16-7. The Builders responded with a five-spot in their half of the inning. Dehoux started it with a solo home run and Wagner’s two-run double later in the inning plated what turned into the final runs of the game as the Builders fell 16-12.
Dehoux was 3-for-5 with a pair of runs scored and a pair of RBIs while Wagner was 2-for-2 with three RBIs and Fields was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs to lead the hit brigade in game two. Daniel Lutz took his first loss of the year in four decisions allowing eight runs in 5.2 innings of work.
Apprentice School (15-7) will take the field again on Monday in a noon doubleheader with Danville CC at War Memorial Stadium.