The Massachusetts baseball team bounced back from its tough loss to Harvard in a 12-5 win against Fairfield on Wednesday afternoon.
The Minutemen’s (10-18, 2-4 Atlantic 10) fifth inning featured a large portion of their offense. With five runs in the inning, UMass took a large lead against Fairfield (13-17, 5-1 Metro Atlantic Athletic) that the Stags could not come back from.
The inning started out with Kevin Skagerlind getting on base by a hit-by-pitch and then advancing to second base by way of a passed ball. Mike Gervasi saw an opportunity, singling to right field, far enough to score Skagerlind. Jack Beverly followed the play up by doubling down the left field line to bring Gervasi in. To end the scoring, Braden Sullivan slapped a three-run home run to bring the Minutemen up 7-0.
On a home run during the third inning and a double in the fifth inning, Beverly made up for three runs throughout the day. The junior has continued to be a reliable part of the Minutemen lineup with a .302 batting average.
Skagerlind also had a big day at the plate, going 3-4 with an RBI. The senior is up to a .293 batting average after going into the day at .274.
The fifth inning was not the only time UMass’ offense was on display, with big at-bats in the seventh inning. With players on base, Jack Peters, Skagerlind and Gervasi all hit singles to score runners. Austin Burgess also flew out with the bases loaded to score Jack given and advance a runner with a sacrifice fly.
In the inning, the Minutemen took advantage of Fairfield’s pitching struggles to keep runners on base and in scoring position. It paid off for UMass as they came out of the inning with an 11-run lead.
The offense ended for the Minutemen in the eighth inning when Marc Willi hit his second home run in two games. Against Harvard the day before, Willi collected his first home run of the year. The home run put UMass up 12-0 but Fairfield did not go down easily.
Justin Masteralexis started on the mound for UMass and had one of his best starts of the season. In seven innings pitched, he allowed six hits and four walks, while not allowing a run-on top of four strikeouts.
Leif Bigelow came in relief of Masteralexis for the eighth inning, walking two batters but got out of the inning, striking out two without allowing a run on the board. In the ninth inning, Andrew Houghton started the inning and struggled with his command. On three walks and three hits, Fairfield scored five runs to give up UMass’ shutout.
With Houghton’s struggles, Dylan Terwilliger came in for the final batter in the game to get the Minutemen out of the inning.
Meanwhile, the Stags had a bullpen day with seven pitchers featured throughout the matchup. Fairfield’s second pitcher, Jake Memoli in 2.1 innings pitched, gave up five runs and Peter Ostensen in 0.2 innings pitched, allowed four runs.
With multiple low-scoring games in a row, UMass needed a win like this to get back on track after a 10-3 loss. This well-needed momentum can be carried into the Minutemen’s first official home game of the season.
UMass will play the Fordham Rams in a weekend series starting on Friday, April 12 at Earl Lorden Field. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @Kaygregoire.
