HARTFORD, Conn. — The Massachusetts baseball team’s pitching struggled in its 21-5 loss to Holy Cross on Wednesday night.
The fourth inning featured six runs for Holy Cross, putting UMass down by 10 runs midway through the game. Right-handed pitcher Mikey Jensen was put into the game in the inning and allowed just one hit in that inning. The fourth inning was a different story for the sophomore, though.
“I think I’ll go with my grandfather’s advice, if you don’t have anything good to say about what happened, don’t say anything at all,” head coach Matt Reynolds said. “We didn’t do anything well today. We had 18 combined walks and hit-by-pitches on the mound, multiple boneheaded plays on the field.”
UMass had three errors from all over the field with errors from Matt Travisano, Nolan Tichy and Marc Willi. Travisano missed a catch on a throw from the first baseman that cost the Minutemen.
The inning opened with a single and then a double that scored a run to put the Crusaders up 2-1. Jensen could not settle into the inning, then allowing a double to right center to keep the scoring going for Holy Cross.
“I don’t think [pitching] had anything to do with Holy Cross at all,” Reynolds said. “We beat ourselves today.”
After struggling to settle in, Reynolds opted to put Dylan Terwilliger on the mound. The right-handed pitcher struggled with runners in scoring position early. Terwilliger allowed four straight batters on base before getting a flyout. By the end of the inning, the score was 7-1 heading into the fifth inning,
The game had seven pitchers that allowed a combined 16 hits along with 13 walks. Callen Powers in one inning pitched gave up four hits and two walks for six runs with 11 batters faced. To end the game, Andrew Houghton closed the game out for the final inning and gave up four runs on three hits and three walks.
“We didn’t plan on it being a bullpen-by-committee type day,” Reynolds said. “We had to get in the bullpen early and things just snowballed on us so [the game] was a combination of everything today highlighted by the free passes that we gave them.”
Offense struggled for UMass throughout the seven innings, with four of its five runs coming in the fifth inning. Three straight walks by Kyle Hoog, Braden Sullivan and Ryan Kolben loaded the bases early in the inning. A Jack Beverley fly out to right field scored Sullivan to give the Minutemen a run. Carter Hanson and Tichy hit two straight doubles to bring in four more runs.
The offensive explosion by UMass ended the next inning, though, not scoring another run in the game.
Beverly reached base each time he came up to bat, going 2-2 at the plate. Hoog led off the first inning with a double but did not have another hit in the game. The Minutemen totaled eight hits and seven walks.
UMass will travel to South Carolina to take on The Citadel for a three-game series. The first game is on Friday, March 15 at 5 pm. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
“It was overall just a really really bad effort that I hope we don’t repeat,” Reynolds said.
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kaygregoire.
