The Massachusetts baseball team fell 10-9 to Fairfield on Tuesday at Earl Lorden Field. The Minutemen (13-33, 5-16 Atlantic 10) failed to capitalize on a big sixth inning.
UMass entered the frame down 10-3 with little energy, yet it made the game close. The bases loaded fast as Sam Hill, Jake Given and Kevin Skagerlind all walked. After a pitching change for the Stags, (31-16, 13-5 MAAC) Will Maclean walked, Nolan Tichy reached on an error. After two additional walks scored runs, the score became 10-7 despite zero hits. After another Fairfield pitching change, the pitcher balked in one last run to make the score 10-8.
Fairfield commanded the game after an important fourth inning. An early single tied the game at three. Then, MAAC home run leader Charlie Pagliarini launched a 0-2 pitch deep into left field for a grand slam.
“We had two plays that inning we should have made,” UMass coach Matt Reynolds said. “Now we’re in a situation where a guy with 19 home runs is up. We got him 0-2 and didn’t execute the pitch. That was the big strike, the grand slam.”
The game did however start well for the Minutemen as they scored three runs in the first to command an early lead. Steve Luttazi scored Skagerlind on an RBI single and Justin Blumenthal hit in Luttazi. Blumenthal now leads the team in batting average, hitting a steady .342 on the year. Carter Hanson later scored on a wild pitch and gave UMass a 3-1 lead.
Dylan Terwilliger and Renn Lints shut down the Stags in order in the seventh and eighth innings, keeping the Minutemen in the game. Scott LeSieur started the game for UMass allowing seven runs, six earned with 10 hits in his first loss of the season.
I the bottom of the eighth, the Minutemen inched closer to tying up the ballgame. Hanson hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Tichy to make the score 10-9. Hanson was 1-3 with two RBIs and a walk. But that would be it for scoring as both teams would go down in order in their respective frames of the ninth.
“We didn’t play well,” Reynolds said. “[Fairfield] tried to give us the game and we weren’t able to take it…too many bad at-bats in scoring position. We left nine runners on. Just couldn’t battle back from putting ourselves in a hole.”
UMass hosts Dayton for its last series of the season. First pitch of the series is Thursday, May 18 at 1p.m.
“I would like to see us show up,” Reynolds said. “I don’t think we showed up very well today. I would like to see some fire and desire from the team, a little bit better than we had today, and just play that (Dayton) series as hard as they’ve played every other series.”
Owen Shelffo can be reached at [email protected].
