Massachusetts baseball coach Mike Stone has seen a lot go right for his team during its recent seven game winning streak. His young pitching staff has been effective and his lineup has gotten on base and delivered timely hits to help the Minutemen move into a tie for first place in the Atlantic 10 East Division.
However on Tuesday afternoon at Earl Lorden Field, Stone saw everything go the opposite direction against the University of Connecticut.
Leading 6-1 heading into the top of the fourth, freshman starter Jason Hickey combined with classmate Jon Davis to surrender six runs on four longballs in the inning, and with their short-lived lead having evaporated, the Maroon and White saw their bats go silent while UConn’s were just heating up.
The Huskies (17-14 6-6 Big East) sent 15 men to the plate in the sixth inning and saw 10 of them cross the plate, two via homeruns, and cruised to a 20-6 advantage. John Seed’s two-run single in the bottom of the ninth was too little too late as the Huskies pounded the Minutemen 20-8.
“Our pitchers don’t really have enough experience,” Stone said. “Those guys are freshman out there. They don’t have the experience, the command or the poise and confidence to know what they have to do out there to get college hitters out. [The homeruns] were a result of that and that led to us having a lot of trouble today”
The game began on a positive note for the Minutemen, as junior shortstop Mike Athas and senior designated hitter Chris Morgan both doubled and scored off of UConn starter Shawn Hoggatt in the first inning. After freshman catcher Frank Curreri singled and scored a lone run in the second to chase Hoggatt from the game, the Minutemen erupted for three more in the third off of the Connecticut bullpen.
Following a solo homerun from sophomore centerfielder Jason Twomley, his first of the season, senior rightfielder Matt Boulanger doubled and scored on a triple from Curreri. Sophomore leftfielder Curt Szado then proceeded to drive Curreri in with a line single, but that would be it for the UMass offense until the ninth.
The foursome of sophomore southpaw Keith Potvin, freshman righthander Ryan Christopher, lefthanded classmate Brendan McGinn and senior righthander Eric Drown blanked the Minutemen over the middle innings on only three hits before freshman Mike James surrendered the final two UMass tallies in the ninth.
Stone knows, however, that his team’s troubles were centered on the mound and not in the batters box, as all of the five pitchers he used in the game were first-year players.
“Everything starts on the mound, you have to get people out,” Stone said. “When you have 16 hits that should give you a chance to win, but not if you can’t get anybody out. Today we just struggled to get people out.
“We had games Sunday and Monday and all of our regular [starters] pitched, so we needed to get them some rest eventually. [The freshmen] were really all we had left and they struggled.”
Athas paced the UMass attack by going 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored, while Seed, Morgan and Curreri all added two hits.
Freshman righthander Jon Davis took the loss, allowing seven runs on six hits in 2-2/3 innings of relief. Lefthanded pitcher Keith Potvin picked up the win for the Huskies, tossing 2-1/3 innings of shutout relief.
“We need to try and focus on the positive things we’ve done,” Stone said. “We won seven in a row, played good baseball and had some good battles. But people need to realize what needs to be done to win on the college level. Today we needed to get people out and we didn’t, so we need to bounce back strong on Thursday.”
