Box Score
BOSTON, Mass.—Sophomore Ryan Leung (Brookline, Mass.) beat out a two-out infield single in the bottom of the 10th inning, to earn #14 UMass Boston Baseball a walk-off win over Stevens Institute of Technology on Opening Day at Monan Park.
THE BASICS
#14 UMass Boston 6, Stevens Institute of Technology 5
(UMass Boston 1-0)
(Stevens Institute of Technology 0-1)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Leung's first hit of the season capped off a huge comeback win, that was anchored by the Beacons' pitching staff.
Junior Tylor Arruda (New Bedford, Mass.) and senior Joey Rogers (Dighton, Mass.) combined to allow just seven hits and struck out 14, while allowing no earned runs.
Arruda went the opening five innings and struck out a career-high eight batters. He scattered four hits and four walks and allowed four unearned runs.
Rogers was phenomenal out of the pen. The senior lefty came on in the sixth inning and gave up just three hits and one unearned run. He struck out six batters and did not issue a free pass to earn the victory.
Junior Ryan McCormick (Cumberland, R.I.) and freshman Gianni Zarrilli Jr. (South Glastonbury, Conn.) paced the Beacons offense with two hits apiece. McCormick went 2-5 with the Beacons' lone extra-base hit and Zarrilli finished 2-5 in his collegiate debut.
Nico Kydes (Stamford, Conn.) went 1-4 with a run scored and an RBI and Danny Brown (Hudson, N.H.) finished 1-3 with a run scored and a pair of walks.
Tom James led the visiting Ducks with two hits and three RBI. Thomas Paulich ended the day 2-4 with two runs scored, an RBI and a walk.
Freshman righty Leo Bristow pitched extremely well in his second start. The junior allowed five hits and one walk, while striking out seven in six innings. He was charged with three earned runs.
All-Conference righty reliever Alex Smith took his second-straight blown save, after allowing two runs (one earned) in 2.1 innings. Freshman Anthony Pron took the loss, after allowing a hit and two walks and an unearned run in the the 10th inning.
After three scoreless frames, Stevens took the lead in the fourth. With two down and a runner at second, Sutton Dole hit a chopper down the third base line that scored a run, after the Beacons threw the ball away trying to get Dole at first.
UMass Boston responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning. Brown led off the inning with a single and moved to third on a McCormick single. Kydes drove in the run, when he chopped a groundball up the middle that the shortstop double clutched, allowing Kydes to beat out the throw.
Stevens regained the lead with three unearned runs in the fifth. With two on and two outs, Paulich sliced a single past the diving second baseman to score Brett Mendez from second. James followed with a blast to right-center field that easily scored A.J. Falconite and Paulich, but James was held to a single after he tripped on first base.
UMass Boston began their comeback in the bottom fo the fifth. Nick Palma (Beverly, Mass.) walked and moved to second on a Zarrilli single. Both runners moved up two bases on an errant pickoff throw, that went off the second baseman's glove and into right field.
The Beacons cut the deficit to 4-3 in the sixth. After the Beacons led off the inning with a single, a double and a hit by pitch, Nick Cotraro (Peabody, Mass.) hit a sacrifice fly to shallow center, that Ryan Finegan made a diving play on for a sacrifice fly. Bristow got out of the jam thanks to an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Stevens picked up a huge insurance run in the seventh. After a leadoff error, Nate Zuckerman came in to score on an RBI single from James that fell just inside the left-field foul line.
UMass Boston tied the game with a two-run, eighth inning. Kydes and Nick Cotraro (Beverly, Mass.) hit back-to-back one-out singles and Danny Collazo (Stamford, Conn.), who pinch ran for Cotraro, moved up to second on a wild pitch. Freshman Chris Ducko (Dedham, Mass.) scored Kydes on a chopper up the middle that the shortstop misplayed. With two outs and a runner on third, Collazo raced home on a wild pitch.
The Beacons had a great chance to walk it off in the bottom of the ninth. With the bases loaded and one out, Smith induced a grounder back to the mound and got the lead runner at home and then a strike out to force extras.
Rogers struck out the side in the top of the 10th, to set up the Beacons for a walk-off win in the bottom half of the inning. Ducko worked a one-out walk and moved to second on a balk. Noah Mader (Austin, Texas) worked a walk and the Beacons loaded the bases on a possible double play ball that was mishandled. After Ducko was tagged out on a failed suicide squeeze, Leung hit a soft chopper on the right side and barely beat out the throw, to score Mader for the game-winning run.
BY THE NUMBERS
- UMass Boston extended their home-opening winning streak to six games, including all five home openers in Monan Park history. The Beacons have outscored their opponents 45-14 in their five Monan Park home openers.
- Arruda's previous career high for strikeouts was five. He accomplished that feat seven times during his first two years.
- Five players made their Beacons' debut and three players made their collegiate debut in the win.
- Steve Brookwell (Highstown, N.J.) and Zarrilli were the two new faces in the Beacons' lineup.
- Saturday's contest marked the first meeting between the two programs.
- The two teams combined for 17 left on base and six errors in the contest.
- UMass Boston's 14 strikeouts are the most by the team's pitchers, since they punched out 14 batters on April 17 last spring at Salem State University.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will host Suffolk University on Monday at 2:30 p.m. for a non-conference matchup.
