WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University baseball team pounded out a season-high 14 hits – including a near-cycle by graduate student Eddie Zanor (Branford, Conn./Notre Dame-West Haven) - and they scored runs in all but one of their at-bats today as the Judges defeated Eastern Nazarene College, 11-6, in their first game of the season on Stein Diamond.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: 4-3.
• Eastern Nazarene: 0-7.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The first four innings were filled with scoring, with only the top of the second coming and going without a run crossing the plate.
• The Lions got on the board in the top of the first thanks to a two-run home run by Frank Landeiro, but Brandeis bounced right back in the bottom of the inning thanks to three ENC errors and a double from RF Jake Freed (Vernon Hills, Ill./Stevenson), a grad transfer from Oberlin College. Freed scored on a miscue to give Brandeis a 3-2 lead.
• The Judges pushed the lead to 5-2 in the second thanks to RBI singles by sophomore DH Jordan Greenaway (Clifton, N.J./Morristown Beard School) and Zanor.
• The teams traded RBI singles in the third to make it 6-3, and ENC pieced together five hits in the top of the fourth to tie the game at 6-all.
• Brandeis broke the tie in the bottom of the inning when Zanor led off with a single that eluded the rightfielder and allowed him to reach second. He moved to third on a Freed groundout and scored what proved to be the winning run on a single to left by junior catcher Justin Keeler (Seymour, Conn./St. Joseph's).
• Zanor blasted his first home run in a Brandeis uniform with two away in the sixth to add to the Judges' cushion, 8-6.
• Another turning point in the game came in the top of the seventh, when Brandeis grad student starter Marc Maestri (Katonah, N.Y./Somers) allowed a walk and a single to the first two batters he faced. ENC then executed a double-steal against Brandeis right reliever Andrew Tringe (Montpelier, Vt./Montpelier), putting the tying run in scoring position. Tringe went on to strike out the side, all on swings and misses, to avoid further damage.
• Brandeis added a run in the seventh on a bases-loaded wild pitch, and Freed bashed his first home run in a Brandeis uniform in the eighth for the final 11-6 score, as Tringe retired the final six batters in a row, including two by strikeout.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Seven of the nine Brandeis starters had hits in the game, with five players getting at least two.
• Zanor topped the list, finishing a triple shy of the cycle. He was 4-5 with two RBI and four runs scored, a double and a home run.
• The blast was his first of the season and the second of his career, but first since 2021 when he was a first-year at Wesleyan University.
• Freed finished up going 2-5 with three RBI and two runs scored. He also had a home run and a double, with the homer the third of his career after hitting two round trippers in his three years at Oberlin College.
• Maestri improved to 2-0 this season after going six innings, allowing 12 hits and six earned runs. He struck out six and walked just one. The win was the seventh of his career.
• Tringe threw the final three innings for his first collegiate save. He did not allow a hit, walking one and striking out five.
• ENC's big hitters were Landeiro (2-5, R, 2 RBI, HR) and 2B and lead-off hitter Elvis Rojas (3-5, 2 R, RBI).
• Liam Bruskewicz suffered the loss, allowing 10 hits and seven runs (six earned) in 5 innings of work. He fanned four and walked two.

UP NEXT

• Brandeis will host MIT on Thursday at 3 p.m. in their second-straight home contest.