BOSTON – Luck: The chance happening of fortunate or adverse events.

Baseball is a game of strategy, and strategy is a matter of luck. From bases on balls to bean balls, everything in the game is part of a master plan that managers hope will spell v-i-c-t-o-r-y. Because of this, bench bosses lose jobs and find new ones based on their ability to out-strategize their counterpart, which just so happens to be a complete and utter craps shoot.

With every maneuver there’s a winner and a loser; the one who guessed right and the one who guessed wrong. Whether relying on the hot hand, the smart numbers or just a plain ole gut feeling, a manager needs to hope for a certain degree of luck with each move he makes

For eight innings Wednesday afternoon, Massachusetts baseball coach Mike Stone was one lucky man.

But the funny thing about luck is that it runs out.

Playing in the first game of the 2003 Baseball Beanpot against a Harvard team that trotted everything but the kitchen sink out of the Fenway Park bullpen to throw at his Minutemen, Stone could do little wrong. The veteran skipper sacrificed, hit and ran and moved runners over to the tune of six runs over eight innings. And with staff ace Mike Crane on the hill at the old ball yard, it should have been enough to win.

But as previously stated, luck runs out.

In hurling a whopping 127 pitches, Crane was able to scatter 13 hits and give up only three earned runs in those first eight innings. Now only three outs away from a shot at a Beanpot title, Stone’s decision was one made by managers day in and day out: he took the safe money and gave the ball to his closer.

Enter reliable southpaw Scott Ratliff. Previously noted for holding field goals for Doug White on the UMass gridiron, now noted for getting torched for four runs on four hits and blowing a two run lead, all while retiring only a single batter on the Fenway Park mound.

Did I mention luck runs out?

Now faced with a two run deficit heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Minutemen got a single from Jeff Altieri and an RBI double from Matt Reynolds. With centerfielder Jason Twomley due, Stone reaches into his bag of (hopefully) lucky tricks and pulls out pinch hitter Curt Szado, who then proceeded to get plunked by a pitch to nullify any and all designs Stone had for him.

With runners now on first and second with no one out, Stone might as well have sent Matt Boulanger to the plate adorned with a sign reading “I’M BUNTING!” It was the correct move in the humble opinion of this journalist, and it proved to be as lucky as it is correct, as the outfielder laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the runners to second and third with only one out. After Frank Curreri was intentionally walked, weak hitting catcher Tom Ellerbrook headed for the batter’s box.

Death. Taxes. Luck running out.

With all eyes boring in on the home dugout along Fenway’s first base line in search of a pinch hitter, any pinch hitter, or specifically Adam Stojanowski in the ever-evolving humble opinion of this journalist, Stone did nothing. In a bold show of faith, he laid his trust on the shoulders of his senior captain rather than opt for a better contact hitter. He didn’t need a hit, he just needed a simple fly ball and the game would be tied, but Ellerbrook struck out.

With seemingly no luck left to save himself and his team, Stone watched Mike Athas’ soft liner find its way into Crimson first basemen Brian Lentz’s glove, and the Minutemen found their way into the consolation game.

Mike Marzelli is a Collegian columnist.