It has been 11 years since the Massachusetts baseball team won the Atlantic 10 regular season title, but its headed in the right direction starting off the season with a 5-1 conference record.

Having won their first two conference series’ of the season against Fordham and La Salle respectively, the Minutemen have shocked the A-10 with their stellar start, despite their middling 10-10 non-conference record.

The A-10 preseason coaches’ poll had UMass ranked second-to-last in its conference, after finishing 12th out of 13 teams last year, with a 17-29 overall, 8-15 A-10 record in 2011.

In the same poll, coaches cumulatively ranked last year’s A-10 champion, Charlotte, as the No. 1 team in the conference, while the 49ers surprisingly have gotten off to a mediocre start with a 2-7 in-conference record, and an overall record of 14-19.

The key to the Minutemen’s first-place success is the top-notch pitching staff they’ve accumulated.

After finishing second-to-last in in the A-10 in earned run averages last year with an atrocious 5.89 mark, UMass has blown away its competition this year, with a combined 3.02 ERA; nearly half of a run ahead of the next team, Saint Louis, which has a 3.51 mark.

Leading the way have been Joe Popielarczyk and Dennis Torres, who have 1.05 and 2.08 marks, respectively, and are currently first and third in the A-10 in ERA. Popielarczyk’s ERA is currently third amongst starters in the nation.

The Minutemen total batting average has dropped from .282 to .248 since last year, and they have hit two total home runs, but their scrappy playing style has enabled them to just score enough to win ball games.

Comparatively, A-10 foe Richmond has launched a nation-leading 42 home runs. But its 5.61 team ERA is currently holding the Spiders two games behind UMass, proving that no matter how the hitting performs, pitching wins ball games.

Despite the strong start, UMass coach Mike Stone is not focusing on the standings, and is taking one game at a time.

“I’m not worried about where we’re at right now; I just want to play well each day,” said Stone. “This is still early [having just finished] our second conference series.”

UMass take on streaking Hawks

This weekend, the Minutemen will travel to Philadelphia to take on red-hot conference foe, Saint Joseph’s, which is sitting one game behind UMass in the standings.

The Hawks (13-20, 4-2 A-10), who got off to an 8-20 start – which at one point included a nine-game losing streak – is currently riding a five-game winning streak, which has included two wins against Delaware and three victories against conference-rival Saint Louis.

Saint Joe’s is going strong behind its streaking first baseman Kevin Taylor, who was last week’s A-10 Player of the Week. To start off the week, Taylor knocked in the game-winning run against Delaware to secure a 3-2 win in the Liberty Bell Classic.

Taylor then played a vital role in the three-game-sweep of the then-first place SLU (22-10, 5-4 A-10), as he hit safely in each of the three contests, and finished the series with a .461 (6-13) batting average.

Despite the hot bat of Taylor, the immaculate Minutemen pitching staff will have a great chance to continue their dominance on the mound, seeing that the Hawks rank dead-last in the A-10 in batting, with a cumulative .225 average.

Torres will take the mound for UMass on Friday, followed by Glen Misho on Saturday and Popielarczyk on Sunday.

The starting pitching last year was the main weakness of the Minutemen; but this year, Stone’s confidence is through the roof in regards to the three main starters of the rotation.

“All three guys are giving us a chance to win,” said Stone. “We should be winning with this kind of pitching.” [I] feel good about who [I’m] sending out there, and they do the job week after week.”

Taylor Snow can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at MDC_Snow.