Cristian Gomez, Collegian

For the second straight weekend the Massachusetts baseball team will head south to play a non-conference opponent.

Only this time it will be in Florida rather than Arizona and the Minutemen (0-3) will play Army (2-9), rather than undefeated and top-ranked Arizona State.

Both teams have struggled this year, especially with pitching.

Army has a team ERA of 7.63 and has yet to find a consistent starter who can get opposing batters out.

Ben Koenigsfeld, Drew Clothier and Joey Henshaw have each started three games for the Black Knights but none have an ERA of less than six.

The Minutemen shared a similar problem in their opening series, albeit against the best team in the country.

UMass coach Mike Stone elected to start the trio of Mitchell Clegg, Brian Leigh and Nick Serino.

Clegg and Leigh allowed three earned runs in five and 5 2/3 innings, respectively, while Serino excelled in his collegiate debut, limiting the potent Sun Devil offense to one run in four innings.

Stone said Serino was heavily pursued for recruitment coming out of high school – since the Minutemen have a need for starting pitching, Serino’s contributions will be key.

Leigh and Clegg are transfers, and with the exception of Jared Freni, who’s recovering from an injury, UMass doesn’t have a returning pitcher who started more than five games last season.

Though the Minutemen’s pitching hasn’t been stellar, the season has just begun. Most teams have played at least 10 or 11 games by now, especially those located or willing to travel south.

While Arizona State’s hitters won their battle with the UMass pitchers, the Minutemen bats struggled as well.

The team hit a collective .214 over the weekend and struck out 34 times.

Junior co-captain Adam Tempesta led the Minutemen, going 4-for-9 from the plate and driving in three runs.

Sophomore Mike Donato also drove in three runs and went 2-for-8 on the weekend, while Brian Baudinet struggled from the plate (1-for-6) but displayed patience and drew four walks.

Army’s averaging slightly over five runs per game this season but it does have the ability to score runs, as evidenced by its 23-0 romp over UMBC on March 2.

Freshman Clint Moore has become quickly acclimated to Division I college baseball. The freshman has started all 11 games this season and has compiled a .342 batting average as well as a .457 on-base percentage.

Moore also appeared in one relief appearance for the Black Knights, pitching one shutout inning.

Along with Moore, Andy Ernesto has paced the Army offense. The junior leads the team with 48 hits and holds a .292 batting average.

Game notes

Army holds a 2-1 lead in the all-time series between the two teams, including a 6-5 victory in 2006