Redshirt freshman Collin Shapiro was a hit machine all day for the Massachusetts baseball team on Saturday.
Shapiro was the hero for UMass (7-15, 2-6 Atlantic-10) as he tallied four hits and reached base in all of his at-bats in game one of the double-header.
“The guy is a menace,” Reynolds said. “Anytime you go four for four with two walks and work their staff the way that he single handedly did, that’s a heck of a game.”
Shapiro worked the count all day and was able to accumulate four hits and two walks to reach base safely in all of his at bats. With no RBIs to his credit on the day heading into the ninth, the freshman took advantage of the opportunity at hand, with runners at third and second and two outs, and singled to right, plating two runs to give the Minutemen the win.
“Obviously in the A-10 there’s a lot of good pitchers,” said Shapiro. “I actually started feeling good about myself on Tuesday. I had a pretty good day so that carried my confidence over into today. In general, I feel I see the pitching pretty well and it translated today.”
Senior Justin Lasko got the ball for the opener of the three-game series. Pitching in his first game at home of the year, Lasko picked up right where he left off from last year. The righty went a solid six innings of pitching, allowing two earned runs, two walks, and struck out seven.
“I thought he was really solid,” Reynolds said. “I’m glad we were able to get him the no decision, and [Zach] Clevenger the win. I thought he was good, the pitch count got up a little bit and we didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do to send him back out there. [He] absolutely gave us a chance to win.”
Lasko worked himself out of a couple of jams throughout the day and didn’t allow Saint Louis to score until it tacked on single runs in both the top of the fifth and sixth.
“It’s always nice to get out of a jam, and to get out without runs it’s always going to be huge,” Lasko said. “It’s going to shift momentum for the hitters, so that’s important always, and then just fires yourself up because you know you got out of something that was pretty tough.”
Lasko went on to pick up the no-decision, while Clevenger picked up the win, going an inning in the top of the ninth. Clevenger relieved Donahue, who loaded the bases up, yet Clevenger escaped the inning without any damage.
Game two saw a swing of momentum go the Billikens’ way, after a burst of offense in the top of the fourth and then again in the top of the ninth to put the game away. The Minutemen kept within two runs of the Billikens throughout much of the game, but Saint Louis pulled away late, putting up three runs in the top of the ninth to win 9-4.
It was a balanced score sheet for Saint Louis with six men recording a hit and five players recording at least one RBI. The Minutemen bullpen couldn’t stop the damage of runs from the Billikens, as they allowed five runs after starter Jack Steele was pulled after 3 2/3 innings.
The finale of the series is set for tomorrow at 12 p.m. at Earl Lorden Field.
