BOSTON — The Massachusetts baseball team’s struggles continued in its 13-6 loss to Boston College at Fenway Park in the Baseball Beanpot on Tuesday.
The Minutemen came out struggling to come across the plate, going scoreless in the first four innings. In the fifth inning, though, UMass turned its offense around, scoring four runs in the inning. Reese McCarthy and Sam Hill led off the inning with walks to get UMass runners in scoring position.
Jack Peters reached base on a fielder’s choice that took Hill out but put McCarthy on third base. An Anthony Tirado double down the right field line brought McCarthy home and put Peters on third.
Braden Sullivan’s single, Carter Hanson bunt and a Jack Beverly double tied the game up 4-4 going into the fifth inning.
The Minutemen tacked on two more runs to take the lead in the seventh inning off a Beverly double off the green monster.
Hill had a good day on the both sides of the field, going 1-for-2 with two walks, also throwing out a BC runner at home plate.
“Just staying composed,” Hill said about his approach at the plate. “Not trying to be too big. Obviously your first at bat, or all your at bats, you want to [hit doubles] but the big thing was just not to get too big, not get too jumpy and take good at bats and just do everything you can to win.”
UMass had a bullpen day, seeing six different pitchers on the mound through nine innings. Robbie O’Connor started on the mound for an inning, giving up just a walk during that time. Michael Aceto, Ben Thomas and Jack Levine all put up strong numbers until the eighth inning.
“I thought we threw well enough early on, had some mistakes behind us,” head coach Matt Reynolds said. “We also did flip, I don’t know what the number is but enough free passes and a couple hit by pitches where BC is the type of team where they handle a small ball game really well.”
In the eighth inning, Levine was left out after Beck Milner hit a home run to right field to put the Eagles within one run. Esteban Garcia, Sam McNulty and Patrick Roche each walked to bring up Josiah Ragsdale.
Before Ragsdale came up to bat, Bobby McDonough replaced Levine on the mound. On McDonough’s first pitch, Ragsdale hit a grand slam to put BC up by three runs. After the grand slam, UMass couldn’t get back into rhythm.
“Got a little bit lucky to keep it close and then we pitched pretty well early on,” Reynolds said. “Made too many mistakes, fastball, two run error but came back, charged right back, took the lead. Give BC credit, they did a great job.”
After a scoreless first three innings from both teams, the Eagles broke through in the fourth inning. Aceto pitched in the second and third innings, giving up a hit and walking two batter. The relief pitcher got out of a jam in the third after he led off with hitting a BC batter.
After hitting a batter, he got two straight out, but Jack Toomey stole third base. Aceto got out of the jam after Kyle Wolff lined out to Jack Beverly.
After getting in the jam, Reynolds opted to put Ben Thomas on the mound. In his first inning, despite pitching to get out of the game without a run on the board, errors plagued UMass. Two Eagles singled and then advanced into scoring position. A wild pitch past catcher Michael Toth sent Vince Cimini home to give BC its first run of the day.
After the run, Thomas walked McNulty who then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Things got worse for the Minutemen when Patrick Roche came up to the plate. Instead of an easy ground out, UMass recorded another error. Beverly’s throw to first base went wide, allowing two runners to score and extend the Eagles’ lead to three runs.
The Minutemen have a quick turnaround, taking on Siena at Earl Lorden Field on Wednesday, April 30. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.
“We’ve just got to keep going,” Reynolds said. “We got to shower up and get ready for [Wednesday]. We’ve got a double midweeker here…we’ve just got to focus on getting the win [on Wednesday].”
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kaygregoire.
