It was quite the night for the Massachusetts baseball team.
The Minutemen rallied back against Harvard with a walk off in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Crimson 10-9 and bring the Beanpot back to Amherst for the first time since 2012.
Logan Greene was the hero for the Minutemen (11-18) with his sac-fly—his first career walk-off—to center field to bring in pinch-runner Luke Gutos. Greene started off the game on the bench to rest his hamstring, but knew it was his time when Coach Matt Reynolds pinch hit the senior for Luke Oliphant.
“It was awesome,” Greene said. “Coach spoke all day about it. He said, ‘Be ready for a pinch-hit, we know you can’t run but if the situation presents itself where we need a ball in the outfield, go get the job done.’ I was lucky enough the cards folded in the right direction.”
Trailing by one, the Minutemen started off the bottom of the ninth with a double from Anthony Videtto, who finished the game going 3-5 with two RBIs to his name. After a passed ball advanced Videtto to third, a ground ball chopper over the head of the Harvard (18-9) third baseman from senior Connor Smith plated the run to tie the game at nine apiece.
Videtto was key to starting off the inning for the Minutemen and getting things going.
“We were so resilient today,” said Videtto. “Being down a few runs late in the game we just kept pounding and going. Everyone wanted to win the game, everyone put forth their best effort.”
After Smith’s game tying hit, multiple bunts put runners at every base for UMass. Greene came up to bat and hit a sacrifice fly to center which brought home the winning run and brought the Beanpot trophy back to Amherst for the seventh time.
“We really had to grind through today,” UMass coach Matt Reynolds said. “Harvard is an outstanding team, outstanding offensive team, and coached tremendously well. To beat those guys, it is an honor for us. They are tough outs one through nine.”
The Minutemen started Justin Lasko, but he only went one inning, and from then on, they used four different pitchers to get themselves through the game. Lasko allowed a homer to right field to Harvard’s Patrick McColl, the power-hitting lefty’s tenth homer on the season. Crimson third baseman Logan Bravo had a big day at the plate, finishing 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
The game kept going back and forth with lead changes on both sides of game. For the Minutemen, they stayed resilient and fought back to win the Beanpot. Reynolds was pleased with the team throughout the night.
“I think they learned at some point during the middle of the year we are just going to keep going and keep the gas on,” said Reynolds. “When bad things happen to us, we’ve figured out that if we put it behind us and keep moving forward we will give us a chance to do something special like we did tonight.”
The Minutemen are on the road this weekend against Maine in a four game weekend series with first pitch on Friday at 4 p.m.
Frederick Hanna can be reached at [email protected].
