AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The No. 17 Keystone College baseball team fell to No. 18 UMass Boston 3-2 on Tuesday in a matchup of top-25 programs in the RussMatt Invitational.
With the defeat, the Giants move to .500 at 2-2 and are off until Friday, March 15 as Keystone plays Franklin & Marshall at 2 p.m. followed by a contest with No. 2 Rowan at 5:30 p.m.
The Beacons improve to 2-3 and will play Webster on Wednesday, March 13 at 4:30 p.m.
Keystone tallied six hits on the day, as senior Chris Panzarella continued his torrid start to the year with a 2-for-5 outing. Panzarella is hitting .650 (13-for-20) in four games.
Senior Ronald Medina went 2-for-4 with an RBI lineout in the fourth.
Senior Mohammed Hussein went 1-for-3 at the leadoff spot, drawing two walks and scoring one run. Junior Adam Kelly enjoyed a double to right field in the eighth inning.
Sophomore Nathan Hinkley earned the starting nod and tossed four innings, allowing two runs on six hits while striking out three and walking four Beacons. Senior Luke McDonagh suffered the defeat, going four innings in relief while striking out a pair.
UMass Boston went ahead 2-0 on a two-run single to right in the bottom of the first. Medina came through with an RBI lineout to left in the fourth, scoring junior Nick Carlini, to make it a 2-1 game.
Senior Johann Paniagua plated Hussein with an RBI groundout in the seventh to knot the contest at 2-2 before the Beacons reclaimed the lead on an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh.