The Massachusetts baseball team tallied its 1500th win in club history on Wednesday, with a 7-6 victory over Northeastern.
The visiting Huskies struggled defensively throughout, and the Minutemen wasted no time as they took advantage of the opposing fielding woes and started off with an early lead.
Ryan Cusick was hit on the second pitch of the game, and shortly thereafter advanced to second on a wild pitch by Matt Cook (1-5).
Kyle Adie then took a shot out to left field for a single, and advanced to second on a errant throw by left fielder Matt Miller. The speedy second baseman, Cusick, scored on the play to notch the first run of the game.
Adie advanced to third on another wild pitch, and was then singled in by Anthony Serino for the second run.
Serino advanced to second on a groundout, moved on to third on a passed ball, and was then driven in for the third run of the inning when Adam Picard grounded out to shortstop.
Freshman starter Conor LeBlanc threw two scoreless innings for UMass, before running into trouble in the third.
LeBlanc gave up two singles on three pitches to start off the inning, and surrendered an RBI double to John Puttress with one out. He then gave up a run on an RBI single, and allowed the third and tying run of the inning on a wild pickoff throw to first.
LeBlanc was then substituted for freshman reliever Tim Stoops (1-1), who threw three scoreless innings and eventually ended up with the win, thanks to an RBI single by Tom Conley, which put the Minutemen up for good in the bottom of the third.
In the fourth, Northeastern’s defensive difficulties continued, after two consecutive wild throws on sacrifice bunts. The errors loaded the bases and by inning’s end, UMass had a 6-3 advantage.
The Huskies and Minutemen each scored once in the seventh, before Northeastern nearly made a comeback in the eighth.
Ryan Lubreski got two of the first three Husky batters out in the top of the inning, but ran into a jam when he gave up three consecutive singles on two runs, which brought the score to within one.
Closer Leif Sorenson came in to the pressure situation with the tying run at second and the go-ahead run at first.
With the hope of playing hero for Northeastern, Miller came up to the plate looking to add to his three-hit, two-RBI afternoon.
He belted the first pitch he saw out to right field for what looked to be the game tying hit, but Adie dove forward to make the game-saving catch.
“I thought it was going to get down [for a hit],” said Sorenson. “I’ve played with [Miller] for two summers so he knows my stuff. He probably thought I was coming right after him, which I did, and I’m just glad it stayed up long enough.”
Sorenson came out for the ninth, and picked up his school record-tying seventh save of the season with a one-two-three inning.
Despite the win, UMass head coach Mike Stone was not pleased with the effort displayed by his players.
“We didn’t have the intensity and the sharpness that we need to play well and feel good about our effort,” said Stone. “I didn’t think we had it today and I think we were fortunate to win.”
This weekend, the Minutemen will face off against Richmond, who is averaging the second most home runs per game (1.25) in the nation, and have amassed 50 round-trippers thus far this season.
The Spiders are lead by Chris Cowell, who has logged 14 home runs and 39 RBIs, and is one of four players on Richmond who have at least seven home runs.
In comparison, UMass has totaled five home runs as a team up to this point.
“We have to be sharp and compete [this weekend],” said Stone. “We have a pretty good pitching staff; we just have to get really good efforts and performances from all three starters.”
On the mound for the Minutemen in the three-game series will be Dennis Torres, Glen Misho and Joe Popielarczyk respectively.
