The Massachusetts baseball team showcased its offensive firepower in its first series win of the season, taking two out of three against Coppin State. The Minutemen (3-3) scored 50 runs throughout the three-game series with the bulk of the scoring coming from a 22-2 win on Saturday, March 1, and a 22-7 win on Sunday, March 2.
“We talked after Friday [about] just to try to string quality at-bats together one after the other and that was kind of our issue, I think, in the first four games,” head coach Matt Reynolds said. “I thought, for the most part, we started to break out that this weekend and we did a good job with it.”
Though the 22-7 final score of Sunday’s game suggests UMass dominated from the start, this was not the case. The Minutemen narrowly led 5-4 in the fifth inning when their offense kicked into high gear.
Jack Beverley and Ryan Kolben began the fifth inning with a pair of doubles, putting runners on second and third with Carter Hanson at the plate. Defensive mistakes began to pile up for the Eagles (2-7) as Beverley scored on a passed ball and Hanson reached first on an error by Gabe Breckenridge at third base.
After Jared Munoz drew a walk to load the bases, Matt Travisano drove in a pair of runs with a single to center. With runners on the corners, Munoz scored on a throw down to second as Travisano swiped a bag. This topped off a four-run inning for the Minutemen, giving them a 9-4 lead.
“[We’ve] got some guys just kind of hitting their stride. That, in combination with some free passes and some extra opportunities that Coppin [State] gave us with walks, hit by pitches and some errors, led to the inflated scores,” Reynolds said. “I thought our guys did a good job and ran the bases well.”
Coppin State’s offense responded with an RBI double from Indy Anderson and a two-run homer to left by Sam Nieves, but defensive mistakes put the game out of reach for the Eagles. UMass players cycled the bases with four walks, two hit batters, a wild pitch and an error on the way to a six-run sixth inning. UMass put up seven runs the next inning to force a mercy rule ending for the second game in a row.
The previous mercy ending came in Saturday’s 22-2 win for UMass. The Minutemen dominated the game from the jump, scoring six runs in the first frame. Callen Powers had a dominant showing on the mound as he held Coppin State hitless for five innings before being pulled for Michael Aceto.
This shutdown effort from Powers, paired with the offensive efforts of Hanson, Munoz and Anthony Tirado, gave UMass complete control of the game. That trio of Minutemen hitters combined for seven hits and 10 RBI on the way to their first win of the series.
The first game of the series was a much different story than the final two as the Eagles grabbed a 9-6 win on Friday, Feb. 28. Coppin State was quick to strike, scoring on a hit by pitch after loading the bases in the first inning. With the bags still loaded, Daniel Moore blasted a ball to left field for a grand slam, expanding his squad’s lead to 5-0.
“That was hard to recover from, I still thought we had a shot at that game even after the first inning,” Reynolds said. “We had some opportunities to put up a crooked number, which is what we needed to get back even and give ourselves a chance to win. Unfortunately, that wasn’t there for us.”
UMass chipped away at the Eagles’ lead throughout the game, but Coppin State continued to tack on runs to keep the Minutemen at bay. An RBI single by Moore in the fifth inning ultimately put the game out of reach for UMass.
The Minutemen ended the series with two huge offensive punches and will look to continue that momentum as they face Navy in a three-game series starting on Friday, March 7 at 4 p.m.
Tym Brown can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @tym_brown1.
