Forgive Scott Ratliff if he never wants to pitch in the Baseball Beanpot again.

A year after blowing a 6-4 lead and earning the loss by surrendering four ninth-inning runs to Harvard at Fenway Park, UMass’ southpaw closer was again thrust into a late-inning situation in the annual tournament – this time against Northeastern at Brockton’s Campanelli Stadium.

However while the venue and the opponent were different, the results were quite the same.

With the score tied at three in the bottom of the eighth, Husky shortstop Arman Sidhu doubled to knock UMass starter Devin Barnett from the game in favor of Ratliff.

After striking out rightfielder Chris Emanuele, Ratliff walked centerfielder Chris Heriot on a wild pitch, allowing Sidhu to advance to third and setting up runners at the corners with one out for Paul Koslowski.

However the Northeastern first basemen never got a chance to drive in the go-ahead run with his bat, as the first base umpire called Ratliff for a balk, awarding second base to Heriot and the plate to Sidhu and giving the Huskies a 4-3 lead.

The Maroon and White proceeded to go down 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth, as rightfielder Curt Szado flied to right to end the game and send the Minutemen to the consolation game in heartbreaking fashion for the second consecutive year.

The Minutemen return to action tomorrow afternoon in the consolation game of the 2004 Baseball Beanpot.

Dave Pellegrine earned the win for NU after working 3-1/3 innings of scoreless ball, allowing no hits and two walks while striking out two.

Barnett was the tough-luck loser for UMass, allowing six hits and three earned runs while striking out three in seven solid innings.

Northeastern wasted little time getting on the board in the bottom of the first inning against Barnett. After the freshman righthander hit leadoff hitter Brad Czarnowski with a pitch and Sidhu singled, Barnett was able to retire Emanuele on a popup to first before Heriot singled to right, scoring Czarnowski and sending Sidhu to third.

Koslowski then followed with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Sidhu and giving Northeastern a 2-0 edge.

The Huskies added an unearned run to cap their scoring in the first, as Heriot stole second and scored on a two-base error by UMass second basemen Anthony Santos.

The Maroon and White chipped away at Northeastern’s lead in the third when Santos walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by junior centerfielder Jason Twomley, who moved up to second after Czarnowski committed an error on the play.

Senior captain Mike Athas followed with a groundout, moving Twomley to third where he then scored on an RBI groundout by sophomore catcher Frank Curreri.

UMass tied the game in the top of the sixth thanks to the speed of Derek Durepo. With two outs in the inning, the sophomore outfielder walked, stole second, advanced to third on a single by Santos and scored the tying run by stealing home as part of a double-steal, with Santos taking second.