The Massachusetts baseball team suffered a 12-1 loss to Northeastern Tuesday night in the first round of the Baseball Beanpot. The Huskies (22-6, 5-1 Colonial Athletic Association) outplayed the Minutemen (8-15, 1-2 Atlantic 10) in most facets of the game.
UMass got its lone run of the game in the top of the second inning by way of two walks and two hit-by-pitches, the final hit batter being Austin Burgess, who tallied his tenth RBI of the season.
“We had guys in scoring position in multiple opportunities and we were not able to capitalize,” head coach Matt Reynolds said. “It was a tough game for us. We didn’t really play well in any one aspect of the game.”
Northeastern got the bulk of its runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, with four Huskies tacking on a hit in the frame to bring home six runs. This put the cap on an off night for UMass.
The end to this one came early for both teams, with the NCAA’s non-conference games being called after seven innings if one team is leading by 10 or more runs.
The main bright spot for the Minutemen on the night was their lack of mistakes in the field defensively, finishing the game without an error. There were still a few miscues throughout the game, but UMass came into the game ranked 282 out of 295 in the NCAA when it comes to fielding percentage, sitting at .950 coming into the game.
Alex Lane did a chunk of damage for the Huskies on the night, tallying four of the team’s 12 RBIs, by way of a two-run home run, an RBI single and a sacrifice fly.
With 10 runners left on base for the Minutemen on the night, the team’s timely hitting looks to come through in situations with runners in scoring position in the future to bring home as many runs as possible.
“[Tuesday] was a lack of overall hitting, as well as, not just timely,” Reynolds said. “… We don’t have to reinvent anything, I think we’ve just drifted away a little bit from the approach that gave us a lot of success early on in the year and we just need to get back to that.”
UMass totaled just two hits throughout the seven innings of gameplay, with Braden Sullivan and Kyle Hoog as the only Minutemen to reach base with their bats, as opposed to the team’s seven walks and three hit batsmen.
“[Northeastern] especially did a really nice job from the middle of the game towards the end, with their ability to control us offensively,” Reynolds said. “They threw some really good arms out there that did the job, and that led to a lopsided result.” Play
Justin Masteralexis got the start on the mound for the Minutemen, suffering the first loss of his collegiate career. He threw three innings, surrendering six earned runs while walking three batters.
“[Masteralexis] really battled for us. I don’t think the command was there for him [Tuesday],” Reynolds said. “… He made some really good pitches, but I think a couple of pitches got away from him.”
Andrew Middleton and Dylan Terwilliger came on in relief for the last three innings, combining for three strikeouts and four walks. The pair surrendered a combined six runs as well, bringing the Northeastern total to 12.
Coming up next for UMass is its second A-10 weekend series of the season against URI. Game one’s first pitch from Kingston, RI is set for Friday, April 5 at 3 p.m.
“We’ll take the next few days to [get back on track], get our heads right, get our swings right and get as prepared as we possibly can going into a really important conference weekend,” Reynolds said. “[Northeastern’s] really talented and they took advantage. We know we needed to play our best to go in there and expect to win and unfortunately, we didn’t do that.”
Mike Maynard can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @mikecmaynard.
