Massachusetts baseball coach Mike Stone is waiting for someone to step up.

And with his team’s record sitting at 1-12 heading into its home-opener against the New Jersey Institute of Technology Friday, time is running out for his players to do so.

Life on the road hasn’t been kind to UMass so far this season. Offensively, the Minutemen have averaged just over two runs scored per game and have been held to one run or fewer seven times. And outside of starters Jordan Pace and D.J. Jauss, the pitching has also been inconsistent with the Minutemen sporting a 5.55 team earned run average.

Stone believes his team is still lacking an identity and needs time to come together.

“I think this team needs 20 games before we really get into a groove,” he said. “And, unfortunately, all those games count. I think we just need to play and stay positive and then find out what our real strengths are. I don’t really know that they have emerged yet.”

Power hitting is not one of those strengths. UMass has just three home runs and a .273 slugging percentage on the season, but Stone said that isn’t what he’s looking for out of his lineup.

“We need to be a scrappy, manufacturing-runs type team,” he said. “We really haven’t done a lot of that yet. We’ve hit sporadically (and) we just haven’t scored many runs.”

Injuries have also taken their toll.

“We have some injuries, so we’re trying to deal with keeping the best bats in the lineup without re-injuring someone with a hamstring or an arm or something like that,” he said. “So, that’s kind of been a little bit of a juggling act at this point.”

Because of inclement weather, the Minutemen’s home-opener has been pushed back twice already. That kind of upheaval has also made things difficult for a team looking to hit its stride.

Still, Stone sees reason to be excited about the team going forward, especially from some of his starting pitchers.

“Andrew Grant came out of last year as a guy who emerged as a potential weekend top starter,” he said. “We look forward to him getting in the groove a little bit more. D.J. Jauss has been solid for us, as well as Jordan Pace.”

Ron Wallace, the team’s captain, has been sidelined with arm troubles and has yet to pitch this season, but is expected to bolster the rotation as a guy who can eat up innings when healthy.

“Those guys have shone that they can be reliable and give us a good chance to win a ball game when they’re in it, whether it be as a reliever or a starter,” added Stone.

Stone said a number of hitters have gotten off to “decent starts,” but no one has really elevated their game to stand out yet.

“Adam Picard is off to a pretty good start,” he said. “(Ryan) Cusick has started pretty well for us, (Nik) Campero, he’s off to a decent start, Rob McLam’s hitting well as DH. We just need to get into a groove and get some rhythm offensively.

“I think, not only individual rhythm, but as a team (with) offensive production. It hasn’t really happened consistently.”

Through 13 games, Picard has been UMass’ most impressive hitter. He leads the team in slugging (.432), on-base percentage (.400) and doubles (three) and is second in home runs (1) and RBI (4).

The team was picked to finish 10th in the preseason Atlantic 10 coaches poll, but it is already buried in last place after being swept by George Washington last weekend. And the road ahead for the Minutemen isn’t likely to get any easier as they move further into their conference schedule.

“It’s a strong conference, every weekend’s a challenge,” Stone said. “The teams that should be good are Dayton and Xavier, VCU and Richmond and Charlotte.”

As the losses have piled up early in the season, Stone said he tries to keep the expectations of win-loss records from affecting him or his team.

“I never look at it that way, I always look at it one game at a time,” he said. “I don’t think it’s realistic to go through the schedule and pick where you’re gonna win and lose before it even happens. I try to discourage our guys from doing that, too.”

But that pressure will continue to grow until UMass shows that it can play more consistently. There’s still time for Stone and his team to turn it around, but for now they’re still waiting for someone to step up.

“Other people need to emerge as effective players,” Stone said. “I’ll let you know (who it is) in a few weeks.”

Daniel Malone can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Daniel_Malone.