TOWSON, M.D. — The Massachusetts baseball team couldn’t fight back from its early deficit, falling 20-15 against Towson University on the road on Wednesday afternoon.
Sam Belliveau got the start on the mound for the Minutemen (6-8-1, 1-2 Atlantic 10) and struggled with command in the second inning. That inning began with a home run from Brady Nathison that knotted the game at one run a piece, the start of a great offensive showing by the Tigers (7-15).
UMass opted to go to its bullpen for Michael Aceto after Belliveau faced seven batters, but the right-handed pitcher also couldn’t find outs in the second inning. Aceto faced five batters and allowed three hits, two walks and five earned runs. After giving up a home run to Ethan Brand to make it an 11-1 ballgame, the Minutemen went back to their bullpen for the second time in the inning.
Dylan Terwilliger was called to the mound next, and he was just what UMass needed to get out of the inning. After the junior walked one runner on base, he faced Towson’s Jordan Peyton next. Peyton grounded into a double play to get the final two outs and get the Minutemen out of a tough 11-run inning.
Despite UMass getting into a 10-run deficit early, the team didn’t back down, putting up five runs of its own in the following inning. The top of the third began with Anthony Tirado getting hit by a pitch before the two batters that followed struck out.
With two outs, Jared Munoz came up to the plate and hit a long ball over the left field fence to start to chip away at the Tigers’ lead. Carter Hanson followed in Munoz’s footsteps, hitting a home run of his own the next at-bat.
The home run was Munoz’s first of two on the day, with the designated hitter grabbing another in the fourth inning.
“That was great to see [Munoz] get going,” head coach Matt Reynolds said. “…He’s got really good bat-to-ball skills and I think that was on display [on Wednesday].”
With Towson’s pitcher Vincent Salvo rattled after the two home runs, the Minutemen capitalized. Gavin O’Brien got a single, Marc Willi was hit by a pitch and Michael Toth took a three-pitch walk, loading up the bases. Jack Peter slapped a single to right field to send two UMass players home to slash the score to 11-6.
“We knew it was a really good day to hit,” Reynolds said. “I thought we knew what [Towson] had out of the bullpen and felt like this was a game, if we could just get control of it from a pitching and defense side of things that we would comeback, and we did.”
After taking the mound in the second, Terwilliger came back out for 2.1 more innings and kept the Tigers away from home plate until the fifth, allowing a three-run home run from Max D’Alessandro. Terwilliger finished his day with three innings pitched, allowing just four hits, three walks and three earned runs on 13 batters faced.
D’Alessandro proved to be the biggest challenge for the Minutemen, going 6-for-6 with five RBIs, including a double and home run.
“Unfortunately it took [Towson’s] best hitter who had six hits [on Wednesday],” Reynolds said about Terwilliger’s outing. “His last pitch was a one-two fastball that was supposed to be eyeball high and it was belt high and it cost us three runs. Overall, before that, he threw the ball pretty well. He was the best of the group and it was a three-run [failed execution].”
Despite UMass’ bullpen struggles, offense was a bright spot in the loss with all but one Minutemen starter recording a hit on Wednesday. Toth and Willi hit home runs and UMass totaled 14 hits and eight walks throughout the nine innings.
In the bullpen, six Minutemen pitchers took the mound and they combined to give up 11 walks, 21 hits and 20 earned runs while striking out just four batters.
“I think we probably ended up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 10, 12 free passes, just [failed execution] in general,” Reynolds said. “Overall, all day long, just from a pitching standpoint, [we were] just behind … misexecuting pitches, missing signs. It was just really, really not good on our [pitching] staff.”
UMass will stay on the road, taking on its second A-10 opponent in a three-game series against Fordham beginning on Friday, March 21. The first game is set for 3 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X/Twitter @Kaygregoire.
