BOSTON, Mass. – Powered by another phenomenal pitching performance for the Corsairs, this time by senior
Ryan Qualey, the UMass Dartmouth Baseball team upset the top-seed and host team UMass Boston, 12-1 on Friday. The Corsairs advance to the Championship Round of the Little East Conference Tournament on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Beacons will play the winner of tonight's Eastern Connecticut and Keene State game.
The Corsairs led 1-0 through a quiet first four innings of play. UMass Dartmouth came up to bat in the top of the fifth inning and rallied for five runs to extend their lead to 6-0. Junior second baseman
Devyn Vezina got things going in the inning with a one-out walk. After stealing second, Vezina advanced to third on a single from grad student first baseman
Joe Muzio and then scoring on a fielding error on senior third baseman
Andrew Possi's contact. Senior DH
Jared Neikam followed him up with an RBI-single.
Freshman
Nick Bartalini came in as a pinch runner for Neikam, stealing second base to set up runners on second and third with one out for senior catcher
Matt Tempone. Tempone blasted a two-run double to left field and eventually scored himself on a two-out RBI-single from senior left fielder Matt Klett. The Corsairs led 6-0 through five innings.
Qualey continued his dominance on the mound to hold off any kind of comeback for the Beacons. In 8.0 innings of work, Qualey allowed just one run on four hits with four strikeouts. The star pitcher from the earlier game today, grad student
Anthony Keefe, helped him out with a two-out, three-run homerun in the top of the seventh to put UMD up by a 9-0 margin.
UMD kept their foot on the pedal offensively, adding another three runs in the top of the eighth inning to go up 12-0. UMass Boston was able to erase the shutout in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single from junior outfielder Mariano Jimenez, marking the very first run scored against the Corsairs in the Conference Tournament so far. Qualey finished the game in just eight innings due to the run rule coming into effect, as the Corsairs took the 12-1 victory over the top-seeded Beacons.
From the plate, UMass Dartmouth was led by Klett, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and scored a run.
Anthony Keefe, after putting on a lights-out performance from the mound in the earlier game, was spectacular from the plate in this one. He went 2-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored, including the three-run homer in the seventh. Neikam, Muzio, and sophomore center fielder
Brett Baker each recorded a pair of hits, with Muzio and Baker each batting in a run.
Beacons' grad student pitcher Max Moss shouldered the loss. He allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits over 4.1 innings of work. From the plate, UMass Boston saw Jimenez record two of their four hits with an RBI. The other base hits came from freshman DH Gaer and freshman shortstop Elliot Miles.
The UMass Dartmouth Baseball team looks to continue their dominant LEC Tournament run tomorrow in the Championship Round. The Corsairs await the winner of the 12:00PM game tomorrow, featuring UMass Boston and the winner of tonight's Keene State vs. Eastern Connecticut game. First pitch for the LEC Championship round is scheduled for 3:30PM in Boston, Massachusetts.
