BOSTON, Mass.—Freshman Dylan Fashempour (Redlands, Calif.) struck out a career-high 10 batters over seven scoreless innings, to lead #22/29 UMass Boston baseball past Roger Williams University in the Beacons home and New England opener.
THE BASICS
#22/29 UMass Boston 4, Roger Williams 2
(UMass Boston 5-4)
(Roger Williams 3-7)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Fashempour and two Beacons relievers combined to strike out 13 Hawks batters, to help UMass Boston win their Monan Park opener for the fourth time in four tries.
The freshman right-hander put together the best outing of his career in his third appearance. He allowed just two hits and two walks, while striking out 10 batters on 105 pitches.
Ben Gottesman (Acton, Mass.) and Bobby Tramondozzi (Peabody, Mass.) combined to record the final six outs. Gottesman threw a perfect eighth inning, before allowing a pair of unearned runs in the nith. Tramondozzi came on in the ninth and retired two batters in a row to pick up his second save of the season.
Senior Nick Herzog (Riverhead, N.Y.) led the Beacons at the plate with three hits in four at-bats and a pair of runs scored.
Eddie Riley (Quincy, Mass.) tacked on two hits and a run scored, while Danny Brown (Hudson, N.H.) added a double and an RBI.
Roger Williams freshman Anthony Sapienza took the loss after allowing four runs (one earned) over five innings of work.
UMass Boston took the lead 1-0 after just two batters in the bottom of the first inning. Riley singled to right-center field and then raced all the way to third base on an errant pickoff throw by Sapienza. Anthony Cecere (Wakefield, Mass.) drove in Riley with a groundout to second.
The Beacons doubled their lead in the fourth inning. Herzog reached on an infield single and reached second on a hit-and-run. With two down and Herzog still at second base, Brown placed a double just inside the left-field line for a run-scoring double.
UMass Boston closed out their scoring in the fifth inning. Kyle Boudrias (Medford, Mass.) singled with two outs and moved to third on a Herzog double. Roger Williams catcher Chris Bosco threw behind Boudrias on an attempted pick-off throw, but the throw ended up going off the glove of the third baseman and into left field to allow both runners to score.
While the Beacons were slowly chipping away at the Hawks pitchers, Fashempour was styming the Roger Williams hitters. The freshman struck out at least one batter in six of his seven innings and notched two strikeouts four times.
He faced his toughest challenge in the top of the third inning, when Roger Williams put runners on the corners with two outs. Fashempour calmly retired Bosco with a fly out to center field to end the threat.
Roger Williams mounted their only run-scoring rally of the game in the ninth. After back-to-back singles from Bosco and Danny Roth put two on with no outs, Bosco raced in on a Beacons error that put runners on the corners with no outs. Brandon Jenkins followed with a sacrifice fly to score pinch runner Eddy Jackson.
Tramondozzi came on at that point and recorded a foul pop up and a strike to leave the tying run on first base.
BY THE NUMBERS
· With the win, UMass Boston moves over .500 for the first time this season. The Beacons were 2-4 before their current three-game winning streak.
· The Beacons pitchers allowed just four hits and two walks, while striking out 13. Roger Williams was held without a hit from two outs in the third inning, until the leadoff hitter in the ninth.
· Fashempour earned his first career win in his first career home start. He has now struck out 16 batters in 12 innings of work and allowed just one earned run in that span.
· Herzog continues to be red-hot at the plate. The senior right fielder is now hitting .378 (14-37) with a team-leading six extra-base hits and nine runs scored.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will host Saint Joseph's College (Maine) on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. The Monks (11-0) have the second-most wins in the country without a loss, behind only Washington College (Md.) who improved to 14-0 on Tuesday.