2008 Woodie Awards
Baseball: UMass drops two of three games in A-10 Tournament
Mike Connors, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 5/12/08 Section: Sports
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The Minutemen (17-24, 10-14 A-10) split a doubleheader on Saturday but lost the final game of the series on Sunday and now sit 2.5 games behind sixth place St. Bonaventure with just one conference series remaining.
UMass plays Quinnipiac tomorrow before wrapping up its season this weekend at Earl Lorden Field against Fordham.
The story of yesterday's game was Jared Freni's lack of control. The sophomore walked five batters in 4 1/3 innings while allowing three runs.
Three of the walks came in the first three innings; and although the Rams couldn't capitalize on them, Freni's pitch count was elevated.
URI (27-22-1, 14-9-1 A-10) scored two runs in the fourth and then added another in the fifth. Freni was removed from the game after walking Pete Mastors. With freshman Nick Serino on in relief, Mastors stole second and third before eventually scoring on a Zach Zaneski single.
Serino pitched well (no runs in 3 2/3 innings). But the UMass offense struggled, and the two unearned runs it scored in the fourth wasn't enough.
In Game Two of Saturday's doubleheader, the Minutemen received their second quality start of the weekend. Mitchell Clegg limited the Rams to two runs over seven innings.
UMass trailed 1-0 going into the fifth inning but scored five runs off starter Nick Greenwood and chased him from the game following the inning.
Adam Tempesta hit a two-run single in the inning before Jim Macdonald followed with a two-run double that knocked in Ryan Franczek and Tempesta to give the Minutemen a 4-1 lead. Macdonald later scored on a throwing error by Zaneski, the catcher.
Mitchell Clegg came into the game for the final two innings, allowing one run in the eighth before retiring the side in order in the ninth.
In Game One, junior Mike Dicato gave UMass another solid pitching performance. He limited the Rams to two earned runs (three total) in eight innings and recorded his second complete game of the season but was outdueled by URI's Brett Palanski.
Palanski allowed one run over 6 2/3 innings before Luke Demko came in and pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings without allowing a hit.
Barring unlikely circumstances, the Minutemen's season is over, but Dicato and Clegg will be back next season. Both showed the ability to be front-end starters this season; and if they're able to build upon their success of this season, along with Serino, UMass will have a chance to have a solid rotation next season.
Game notes
Tempesta was the only member of the Minutemen to record two hits in the first game of the series. The team had four hits … Mike Donato returned to action for the first time since the Charlotte series three weekends ago. He went 1-for-13 over the three games … Bryan Garrity struggled, also going 1-for-13 and dropping his season average to .207.
Mike Connors can be reached at mjconnor@student.umass.edu.
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