With a lopsided 13-1 victory on Sunday afternoon, the Massachusetts baseball team captured its second consecutive Atlantic 10 series, taking two out of three games from Rhode Island over the weekend.
“I think we’re playing better,” UMass coach Mike Stone said. “We played a really good game [Sunday] and everything went our way. We’re doing a lot of things: clutch hitting, good defense and good pitching. It was a real good ballgame. It was nice to blow someone out, too.”
The Minutemen (7-19, 5-7 A-10) flexed their offensive versatility during the rubber game on Sunday. They got out to an early 5-1 advantage by executing small ball to perfection. In the first inning, after three singles, Brian Baudinet hit a sacrifice fly to put his team on the board first.
In the third inning, the first two batters reached base and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. Baudinet again came through with a two-run single. After two more singles, UMass jumped out to a four run lead, all without the benefit of an extra-base hit.
“That’s one of the things we try to do early is to put pressure on the defense as quickly as possible and make things happen,” Stone said. “Fortunately it worked out [Sunday].”
However, once the extra-base hits came, it was more of the same for the Minutemen. Baudinet hit a two-run triple in the fourth inning to break the game open and junior shortstop Matt Gedman hit a grand slam in the seventh to dismiss any chance of a Rams comeback.
“They looked like they were right in the zone,” Stone said. “[Baudinet’s triple] was a big hit and [Gedman] with the grand slam really opened the game up for us. When you get clutch hitting like that, it makes a big difference in the outcome.”
In the end, UMass received contributions throughout the lineup as eight players combined for 13 hits.
Senior Bryan Leigh (2-4) tossed all nine innings for his second consecutive complete game victory. He allowed one run on nine hits, surrendering no walks while striking out three.
“Leigh did a really nice job, kept his pitch count down which was great because he threw a lot of pitches against [Boston College] when he won that ballgame on Tuesday,” Stone said. “After we scored some runs, he’d go out and shut them down. And that’s such a key factor for a pitcher and the momentum of the team. It was a real good performance.”
Leigh’s two performances earned him player of the week honors in the Atlantic 10. He pitched a total of 18 innings giving up five total runs.
UMass got another solid pitching performance from junior Nick Serino on Friday in the series opener as the Minutemen beat the Rams, 6-4.
Serino (1-3) went 6.2 innings, giving up four runs while striking out 10 batters. Sophomore Leif Sorenson earned the save, pitching 2.1 innings of shutout ball while striking out three. It was his first save of the season.
“Nick battled and put us in position to win the ballgame,” Stone said. “[Sorenson] came in and did a great job shutting them down. He looked pretty dominant and that’s what you’re looking for out of the bullpen. That was a good way to start the weekend for us.”
A four-run fourth inning was the key to the victory. The Minutemen hit for the cycle in the inning, which began with senior Mike Donato hitting his second home run of the year. His game-tying blast was followed by a double, triple and two singles as UMass pulled ahead for good.
The middle game of the series saw two pitchers battle deep into the ballgame as UMass fell short, 3-2. Rhode Island’s Ken Graveline pitched a complete game allowing only two unearned runs. Senior Jared Freni (1-4) got the loss for the Minutemen despite surrendering three runs in eight innings.
The game was tied at two in the eighth inning but two consecutive singles and a fielder’s choice allowed URI (17-16, 7-5 A-10) to push across the eventual winning run.
UMass will play Central Connecticut State this afternoon at 3 p.m. with sophomore Glen Misho making only his second start of the season. His first start came on March 13th versus Oklahoma State when Misho could not get out of the first inning and was charged with six earned runs as the Minutemen fell 10-1. He is 0-1 in seven appearances with an 8.25 earned run average.
CCSU (14-12, 9-7 Northeast Conference) is on a three-game winning streak after taking the last three games of a four-game series against Sacred Heart.
Last season the only game between UMass and CCSU was postponed.
Pete Vasquez can be reached at [email protected].
