At the end of each season, coaches can often look back and find one game that had a lasting effect on a team’s fate for one reason or another.

For Massachusetts baseball coach Mike Stone, Wednesday afternoon’s contest with Vermont could be that game.

Trailing the Catamounts (21-9, 6-2 America East) for most of Wednesday afternoon’s game, Stone watched his club exude their resiliency by responding with a furious comeback in the non-league affair.

In sending all nine men to the plate in the bottom of the eighth, the Maroon and White (15-15, 9-6 Atlantic 10) rallied for eight runs and six hits, including a towering two-run homer off the bat of sophomore Jason Twomley that proved to be the game winner in the 12-7 contest.

“A win like that absolutely pumps us up,” Twomley said. “We were sluggish through most of the game, but we’re a team that never quits. If there’s nine innings of ball to be played, we’re going to play all nine innings because that’s what kind of team we are.”

“After [struggling over the past week] we were a little stunned,” added sophomore Mike Crane, the game’s starting pitcher. “But an effort like today really gets us back into things and gives us a big confidence boost.”

The game did not begin as well as it ended for Crane and the Minutemen. Coming into the game with a perfect 4-0 record and considered by all but a few to be the ace of Stone’s young staff, Crane was touched up for seven runs, five earned, on nine hits in five-plus innings by the Catamounts, including a pair of home runs in the fifth inning by freshmen classmates Kyle Brault and Chris Marsh.

“It’ safe to say [I wasn’t on my game] today,” Crane said. “I wasn’t hitting my spots, but picking each other up is what we’re all about. If one guy can’t get the job done someone else does.”

Entering the game in a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth, it was sophomore Anthony Gallo who got the job done. The righthander got out of the inning with only one run crossing the plate, and threw three and 2/3 scoreless innings of relief, allowing only three hits while striking out four to pick up his second victory of the season.

“Anthony pitched really well,” Stone said. “He had good command and got us out of a jam with good damage control. He was throwing well with good juice and hitting his spots.”

“The lead was pretty big, so I figured if I held them then we could keep chipping away at it,” Gallo said. “I tried to get ahead of the hitters and keep us in the ballgame. I know we’ve been hitting well lately, so I knew if I held them there we could come back.”

After being unable to get to UVM starter Jared Slater, other than a tremendous homer by senior designated hitter Chris Morgan, the Minutemen began to chip away further off the UVM bullpen in the seventh. They rallied for three runs off of freshman southpaw Chris Blazek to narrow Vermont”s edge to 7-4, with the big blow an RBI double off the bat of sophomore outfielder Curt Szado.

“Things weren’t looking good for awhile. They had gotten some runs they probably shouldn’t have, and the game should’ve been closer then it was,” Stone said. “We just tried to start with a clean slate in the seventh inning. We got a few runs and started to pile it on in the eighth.”

Senior first baseman Jeff Altieri began the eighth with a one-out double and then scored on an RBI double by junior third baseman Matt Reynolds. After freshman outfielder Frank Curreri drew a walk, senior outfielder Matt Boulanger’s RBI single drove in Reynolds, and Curreri followed to tie the game when the ball eluded Brault in leftfield, setting up Twomley’s heroics.

“The pitcher was throwing fastballs and trying to get guys out with just that, so [assistant coach Tim] Laurita said to just sit dead red,” Twomley said. “I was looking for that fastball and I got it and the rest is history.”

Senior catcher and co-captain Tom Ellerbrook then walked and scored on an RBI double by junior shortstop Mike Athas. UMass concluded the scoring on a two-run homer by fellow co-captain John Seed.

Junior righthander Eric Chown picked up the save for the Minutemen, recording the game’s final out with the bases loaded in relief of Gallo.

Righthander Brett Dobens took the loss for Vermont, allowing five earned runs on four hits in 2/3 of an inning.

The Minutemen will return to action tomorrow, as they head east on the Massachusetts Turnpike for a doubleheader with intrastate rival Boston College in Chestnut Hill. Game one is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

“This game was definitely a confidence booster for us heading into a big day tomorrow against a Big East team like BC,” Twomley said.

“Tomorrow is a big day, playing BC. That’ll be a real good test for us,” Stone added.