BOSTON, Mass.—#22/23 UMass Boston rebounded from their first loss of the postseason, to earn a 6-2 win over New England College, to punch their ticket to the 2019 College World Series.
THE BASICS
New England College 6, #22/23 UMass Boston 4
#22/23 UMass Boston 6, New England College 2
(UMass Boston 35-12)
(New England College 29-18)
HOW IT HAPPENED
UMass Boston jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two and never trailed in the winner-take-all, Super Regional Game 3. With the victory, UMass Boston will travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to play in the eight-team Division III College World Series. New England College sees their best season in program history come to a close, as they finish the year 29-18.
UMass Boston senior shortstop Charlie Huegi (Sandy Hook, Conn.) was named the Most Outstanding Player of the two-day tournament. He finished the three-game series 4-9 with one run, two doubles and six RBI. He also added six assists, five putouts and one double play.
GAME TWO RECAP
New England College scored two runs, with two outs in the bottom of the eight inning, to stun the Beacons and force the "If Necessary" game.
Senior Evan Delaney paced the Pilgrims offense with three hits, one run scored and four RBI, as the right fielder gave New England College an early lead with a grand slam. Joe Maestu scored the game-winning run, while Anderson Jimenez added a hit, a run scored and a key insurance RBI.
Senior closer Manuel Alejandro earned his first win since his freshman year, by going 3.1 innings and giving up just one hit and two walks.
UMass Boston seniors Josh Lopez (New Haven, Conn.) and Eddie Riley (Quincy, Mass.) each finished with two hits, while Riley added a run scored. Huegi had the big hit for the Beacons, with a game-tying, two-run double in the sixth to complete a two-run comeback.
Junior Joey Rogers (Dighton, Mass.) was the tough-luck loser out of the bullpen. He threw three scoreless innings, before running into trouble in the eighth. His final line was three hits, four walks, two earned runs and one strikeout.
New England College put the Beacons in their biggest hole of the tournament in the third. With one out, Christian Aybar and Anderson Jimenez walked and Conor Morin was hit by a pitch. Delaney made Ben Gottesman (Acton, Mass.) pay, as he crushed a grand slam over the left-field wall.
Gottesman settled in from there and was able to retire the next seven batters in a row, before being lifted with two outs in the fifth.
UMass Boston got back into the game with runs in each of the next three innings.
Riley tripled to left-center with one out in the fourth and then scored on a wild pitch. Nico Kydes (Stamford, Conn.) single-handedy produced a run in the fifth. The freshman catcher led off with a single, took second on a passed ball and advanced to third by tagging up from second and just barely beating the throw. After a strikeout for the second out, Kydes raced home on a wild pitch.
The Beacons tied the game in the sixth. Nick Cotraro (Beverly, Mass.) led off with a single and the Beacons loaded the bases on a Ryan McCormick (Cumberland, R.I.) walk and a Kydes hit by pitch. Huegi made Jeam Castillo pay, as he ripped a game-tying, two-run, two-out double down the left-field line.
With the Beacons unable to take the lead on Alejandro, New England College avoided elimination with two runs in eighth. With two down, Maestu walked, Jameson Carey singled and Christian Aybar walked to loaded the bases. Maestu came in to score on a wild pitch and then Jimenez added an RBI single to left to plate Carey.
The Beacons brought the tying run to the plate in the top half of the inning, but Alejandro induced a 3-6, game-ending double play.
GAME THREE RECAP
UMass Boston scored five runs in the first four innings and rode the strong right arms of Dylan Fashempour (Redlands, Calif.), Tylor Arruda (New Bedford, Mass.) and Bobby Tramondozzi (Peabody, Mass.) all the way to Iowa.
The trio limited the Pilgrims to 10 hits, one walk and one earned run, while striking out 12. Fashempour moved to 7-2 on the year, by striking out eight and scattering five hits and one earned run. Arruda retired the first eight batters he faced, before running into trouble in eighth. Tramondozzi came on to strike out the final batter of the ninth and scattered three hits and one run in the ninth to earn his 12th save of the season.
Huegi once again proved to be an offensive hero, he finished 2-2 with a run scored and a team-leading two RBI. McCormick and Kydes each added one hit, one run and one RBI and Riley finished with two hits and two runs.
Freshman Dylan Champagne took the loss, after allowing eight hits, five runs (four earned) over five innings.
After both teams went down 1-2-3 in the first, UMass Boston struck for three two-out runs in the second.
Riley started the rally with a one-out double and moved to third on a groundout. McCormick opened the scoring with a single up the middle that just got underneath the glove of the diving second baseman. Kydes followed with a single that put both runners in scoring position and Huegi and Nick Herzog (Riverhead, N.Y.) each followed with RBI singles to give the Beacons their biggest lead of the Super Regional (3-0).
Delaney got a run back in the fourth, when Delaney hit a moon-shot over the left-field wall.
UMass Boston immediately responded. Riley singled through the right side and Danny Brown (Hudson, N.H.) followed with a bunt single. After a double steal put both runners in scoring position with no outs, Riley raced home on a grounder to short and scored after the throw got away from the catcher. With Brown on third because of the ball getting away, Huegi lined out to deep center to score Brown.
New England College had chances to score against Fashempour in the second, third and fifth innings, but all three times, the freshman struck out the final batter with runners in scoring position.
Arruda took over in the sixth and silenced the Pilgrims bats in back-to-back innings, to allow the Beacons to add another insurance run in the seventh. Huegi put down a bunt single to open the inning and took second on an errant throw. With two down, Lopez looped an RBI double just inside the right-field line for a 6-1 game.
The Pilgrims finally got to Arruda in the eighth. With two down, the Pilgrims recorded back-to-back singles and a hit by pitch to load the bases. Tramondozzi came out of the pen and struck out Luis Atiles to strand the bases loaded.
New England College got one run back in the ninth, but with two on and two outs, Tramondozzi induced a grounder to first and outraced Morin to the bag for the final out.
BY THE NUMBERS
- UMass Boston will be making their third College World Series trip in 10 years. UMass Boston made it to Appleton, Wisconsin for the World Series in 2010 and 2017.
- The Beacons game two loss was their first loss in the postseason (9-1 now) and just their second loss in their last 22 games.
- UMass Boston's nine-man Senior Class improved to 75-20 (78.9 winning percentage) at Monan Park and 140-50 (73.6 winning percentage) over their four seasons.
- Huegi is riding a 12-game hitting streak. The senior is 19-40 (.475) over his last 12 games, with eight doubles and 11 runs scored.
- Tramondozzi has closed out the 2019 Little East Conference Tournament, the UMass Boston Regional and the Super Regional.
- Saturday's contest marked the Beacons' Senior Class' eighth title in program history. The Beacons have won two LEC Regular Season Titles (2016 and 2018), three LEC Tournament Titles (2017-2019), two Regional Titles (2017 and 2019) and one Super Regional (2019).
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will fly out Cedar Rapids, Iowa this week to take part in the 2019 College World Series. UMass Boston will learn their seed and their game one opponent later on this weekend and will play their first game on Friday at Veterans Memorial Stadium.