The Massachusetts baseball team will look to bounce back from a 20-8 trouncing at the hands of Connecticut when it travels to Worcester this afternoon to face Holy Cross.

The game will serve as the Minutemen’s final tune up before they return home to face Rhode Island in a battle for first place in the Atlantic 10 East Division. UMass (11-10, 6-3 Atlantic 10) coach Mike Stone hopes that his pitching staff will again turn for the better with the return of some of his experienced pitchers to the hill.

“We’re going to start Mike Crane on Thursday,” Stone said. “Having the series [with Fordham last weekend] backed up a day really set us back with our pitchers, which is why we went with all freshman [against UConn]. We’re just hoping that we can be effective again with our regular guys back in the mix.”

Stone is also looking to get his lineup back on track. Despite rattling off 17 hits against a myriad of UConn hurlers, the veteran skipper thought his team wasted too many opportunities.

“When you get 17 hits, you should score a lot of runs,” Stone said. “We didn’t score enough for having that many hits, and we need to capitalize when we have the chance to score runs if we want to win ballgames.”

Designated hitter Chris Morgan, who collected a team-high two hits against the Huskies, will look to continue to swing a hot bat for the Minutemen. The senior went 4-for-5 with three doubles and two runs batted in in a victory over Fairfield last week, and added to it by going 4-for-9 with a double, a homer and three runs batted in during the three-game series at Fordham.

The Crusaders (7-13, 3-5 Patriot League) have rebounded to win four of six after dropping 10 of 12 to open the season. They’re coming off a weekend split of a four-game series with Lafayette in which the teams split a pair of doubleheaders. Like the Minutemen, Holy Cross is taking a brief interlude from its conference schedule, as it will host Patriot League rival Navy in a pair of weekend contests.

“We won seven games in a row [prior to the UConn contest],” Stone said. “We were playing good baseball and the guys need to remember that. We should be proud of that, and hopefully we’ll be able to get right back in stride and start winning games again. We need to get back to doing some things well: moving runners along, playing good defense and getting good pitches to hit.

“But it all starts on the mound. We need to be effective and get guys out, and hopefully we can get back on a roll.”

Today’s game will take place at Holy Cross, with the first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m.