courtesy of Brian Beard

On the back of a three-game losing skid, the pressure was on for the baseball team in its first of three games in a weekend series against 15th-ranked Tufts University.

The score was 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth when CJ Brito-Trinidad ’23 stepped up to the plate. He let the first two pitches go by, a strike and a ball. The third pitch was a change-up that Brito-Trinidad made clean contact with, earning him a heroic walk-off home run.

“I definitely knew off the bat that it was gone,” Brito-Trinidad said. “But you have to watch all the way through to make sure that it gets over. After I hit it, I saw the left-fielder get to the fence and I could see him give up and I was like, that ball is over. This game is over. We’re about to go celebrate.”

Brito-Trinidad went on to have a prolific rest of the weekend, batting an average of .538, scoring four runs and adding 5 RBIs. The Polar Bears went on to win all three games over the weekend, completing their first series sweep of Tufts since 2012.

Following his impressive weekend, Brito-Trinidad was named as the NESCAC Player of the Week.

Despite the accolades, Brito-Trinidad still feels there is more he can do to help his team play a winning game.

“[I want to make] sure that every [time I go up to bat] is competitive and that I’m making it difficult for the other team,” Brito-Trinidad said. “And as long as I focus on that instead of the result, good things will happen eventually and the law of averages will take over. Good things will happen for me and when good things are happening for me, good things tend to happen for the rest of the team as well. We have to pass the baton and keep the energy going.”

Above the individual awards, Brito-Trinidad is especially proud of the team’s toughness and determination over the course of the season.

“There are a couple of games where we went down early but we showed a lot of resilience and a lot of fight to come back,” Brito-Trinidad said. “We know that we can stick around with a lot of teams. [The question] is: can we finish those performances? And obviously this weekend we were able to do that.”

The Polar Bears currently sit toward the top of the NESCAC with a 4-2 conference record, though their overall record is 11-14.

Sweeping Tufts certainly helps the team’s chances in playoff seeding, but Brito-Trinidad has larger goals that extend past beating an in-conference rival.

“Hopefully we’ll go to the NESCAC tournament and make Bowdoin proud,” Brito-Trinidad said. “You know, that’s all I can really ask for, to put Bowdoin on the map.”

The Polar Bears take on Colby this weekend in a three-game series in Waterville. The team plays on Friday at 4 p.m. and on Saturday at 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.