By ADAM LONDON
For the Gazette
AMHERST – In an interstate battle, the UMass baseball team fell to Boston College 11-5, dropping its overall season record to 5-11.
The Eagles put the Minutemen in a 3-0 hole early in the first inning Wednesday at Earl Lorden Field.
BC’s Jake Polamaki led off the game with a double, advanced to third on a ball in the dirt and eventually scored on a passed ball.
Stephen Sauter continued the first inning production, taking UMass starter Ryan Venditti deep for a two-run home run two batters later.
Boston College pushed the lead to 5-0 in the second following a Michael Strem solohome run and Donovan Casey sacrifice fly.
The Eagles chased Venditti with one out in the second inning.
UMass cut the margin to 5-3 following a second-inning RBI double from freshman Cooper Mrowka and third inning solo shots from Dylan Morris and John Jennings.
However, that’s as close as the Minutemen would get.
Despite an RBI double from Jennings and sacrifice fly from Hunter Carey in the later innings, the Eagles maintained at least a three-run lead for the rest of the game.
“It’s tough any time you get down like that,” Jennings said. “It’s tough to stay up and have energy and stay focused. But I thought we did a pretty good job in the first couple innings to cut down the lead, but we couldn’t sustain it.”
UMass coach Mike Stone was blunt after the game, citing the loss to ineffective starting pitching.
“Ryan obviously wasn’t effective,” he said. “He didn’t really have any success, and that’s unfortunate because in the past he’s been a guy we can count on. But he knows he didn’t pitch well today and that he didn’t give us a chance to win the ball game. Ultimately it comes down to that.”
On the offensive end, Stone stressed the importance of hitting with runners in scoring position, which has plagued UMass all season.
“That’s been one of our issues all year, our RBI hitting,” he said. “We haven’t cashed in enough. As a hitter, that’s when you want to hit the most, you would think. Anyone who has played the game loves hitting when runners are in scoring position. We just haven’t done that well enough yet.”
Despite a poor overall record, Morris has confidence that the team will bounce back in the remaining half of the season.
“I think our overall record right now doesn’t show how good of a team we really are,” he said. “There’s a lot of season left, and I think we have a lot to prove coming up in the next couple weeks here. I think our team is going to fight back and play well. We have a lot more left in the tank.”
UMass’ remaining schedule will feature predominately conference opponents. After a three-game series against Atlantic 10 foe Davidson last weekend, which featured a 7-1 victory and narrow 5-4 extra-inning defeat, Jennings believes the Minutemen are able to compete with anyone in the conference.
“I think last weekend we showed that we can play with the better teams in the league,” he said. “I think that will continue, we just have to focus a little bit more and sharpen up. If we can cut down on the mistakes and have good pitching, I think wins will start coming our way.”
Following the tough loss to the Eagles, and multiple disappointing defeats throughout the season, Morris expressed the importance of being resilient as a team.
“I think what’s going to make or break this team is how we respond to when we get hit in the mouth,” he said. “It’s easy to be playing hard and confidently when you’re up 5-0 in a game, but it’s when you’re down in the game, or after you’ve lost a few, it’s how you play in those moments that I think will determine the success of this team this year.”
UMass will take the field again Saturday at 1 p.m., as they take on Rhode Island at Earl Lorden Field.