BOSTON, Mass. - Powered by strong showings from the plate from several Beacons batters, UMass Boston defeated UMass Dartmouth, 12-7 on Tuesday afternoon. After suffering their first conference loss of the season, the Corsairs move to 18-13-1 overall and 10-1 in the LEC, while the Beacons improve to 21-10 overall and boast a 10-3 record against conference opponents.
The Beacons struck early with three runs in the bottom of the first, coming off a three-run homerun off the bat of senior second baseman Aidan Blake. UMass Dartmouth responded with a run in the third inning that cut the lead to 3-2 in favor of UMass Boston. The Corsairs' run was driven in by junior second baseman
Devyn Vezina, marking his second RBI of the game.
UMass Boston answered by scoring a run in each of the next three innings to pull ahead 6-3 before driving in four runs in the seventh inning to stretch their lead to 10-3. The four-run seventh featured a two-RBI double from junior left fielder Mariano Jimenez.
UMass Dartmouth fought back into the ballgame in the top of the eighth, rallying with two outs to score four runs. Grad student left fielder
Joe Muzio got the rally going with a two-out double to put two runners in scoring position. Back-to-back base hits from senior DH
Jared Neikam and senior third baseman
Andrew Possi each brought in a run, setting up senior catcher
Matt Tempone who hit a two-RBI double. The Beacons escaped the inning after UMass Dartmouth cut the lead to just 10-7.
In the bottom half of the eighth, UMass Boston tallied another pair of runs to extend their lead to five runs. The Corsairs trailed 12-7 with one last chance to catch up in the top of the ninth, but were unable to overcome the deficit as UMB grad student reliever Tim Cianciolo was able to retire the side to close out the 12-7 victory for the Beacons.
UMass Boston sophomore pitcher Ethan Hunt did a great job limiting the Corsairs' batters early on. He went 7.0 innings on the mound, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits with four strikeouts. UMD freshman pitcher
Aidan Newhall shouldered the loss, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits in 4.0 innings of work.
The Corsairs were led from the plate by sophomore center fielder
Brett Baker, who went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Vezina went 1-for-3 with two RBI's and a run scored. Tempone was 1-for-4 with a two-RBI double.
The Beacons saw Jimenez lead the way, going 3-for-4 with three RBI's and scored two runs. Blake went 2-for-3 with three RBI's and two runs scored, including a three-run homer in the first inning. Freshman shortstop Elliot Miles went 3-for-5 with an RBI while sophomore right fielder Justin Gouveia went 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs.
UMass Dartmouth baseball is back at it on Wednesday, taking on Endicott College at 3:30pm in Beverly.
