HARWICH, Mass. – Senior Luke Nagle's (Pembroke, Mass.) RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning plated the go-ahead run as top-seeded UMass Boston captured the 2017 NCAA Division III New England Baseball Regional Championship with an 11-8 victory over fifth-seeded Babson in the title game played Sunday afternoon at Whitehouse Field.
THE BASICS
#17/19 UMass Boston 11, Babson College 8
UMass Boston (37-10)
Babson College (29-15)
HOW IT HAPPENED
With the title UMass Boston, has punched their ticket to the Division III College World Series which will be played in Appleton, Wisconsin. The Beacons will be making their second-ever trip to the World Series after sweeping the regional tournament for the first time since the 2010 team ran the table for the program's first-ever regional crown.
Sophomore Nick Herzog (Riverhead, N.Y.) was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player, while Josh Lopez (New Haven, Conn.), Dan Mantoni (Northbridge, Mass.), Nagle, Anthony Searles (Shelton, Conn.), Matt Tulley (Lowell, Mass.), Bryan Kaufman (Farmingdale, N.Y.), and Kyle Boudrias (Medford, Mass.) all earned a spot on the All-Tournament team.
Sunday's titles game was a back-and-forth battle between the top-2 hitting teams in the Harwich Regional. Babson, who fell into the loser's bracket after their 4-0 loss to the Beacons, had to defeat St. John Fisher College, Salve Regina University, and Suffolk University to advance to the title game.
The two teams traded two runs each in the third inning before Babson took a 4-2 edge in the fourth on an RBI double by sophomore Connor Gill, and a run-scoring single off the bat of senior Jake Weiss.
UMass Boston grabbed a 5-4 edge in the bottom of the frame on Mantoni's three-run homer to left. Babson College battled back in the top of the fifth to take a 7-5 lead on an error and freshman Sean Harrington's RBI double, but the Beacons responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring single by junior Sal Frosceno (Derby, Conn.) and a two-run single off the bat of Lopez to take an 8-7 advantage to the late frames.
Ryan Arena evened matters one last time for Babson with a solo homer in the top of the seventh to set the stage for UMass Boston's eighth inning rally. Nagle's go-ahead single was followed by a sacrifice fly by freshman Ryan McCormick (Cumberland, R.I.) and Huegi's RBI single through the right side.
The Beavers had the tying run at the plate in the top of the ninth, but Beacon Kaufman induced a game-ending groundout to send his squad to the national championships.
Lopez led an 11-hit UMass Boston attack with three hits on the day, as sophomore Bobby Tramondozzi (Peabody, Mass.) improved to 4-2 on the mound by picking up the win in relief for the Beacons. Weiss rapped out three of Babson's 14 hits in the setback, as sophomore Max allowed two runs in the eighth to take the loss on the mound for the Beavers.
BY THE NUMBERS
- UMass Boston concluded the NCAA Regional Tournament with a 4-0 record for the second time in program history.
- The Beacons are now 10-2 in NCAA Regional Tournament play and 10-4 in NCAA Tournament player overall
- Tramondozzi had his best outing of the postseason as he went a strong 2.1 innings to pick-up the victory
- Kaufman continues to dominate as the Beacons closer having finished-off both the Little East and NCAA Regional Tournaments
- As a team the Beacons hit .432 during the NCAA Regional tournament, with five players hitting .352 or better
- The Beacons pitching staff combined for 26 strikeouts and held opponents to a .269 average during their four games
- UMass Boston improved to 2-0 all-time against Babson College in NCAA Tournament play
WHO'S NEXT
The Beacons will travel to Appleton, Wisconsin and will begin the 2017 College World Series on Friday at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.
Information for this release provided by Mass. Maritime Academy Sports Information Department