By Zack Downing, Staff Writer
UMass Dartmouth started their baseball season strong in their first game at the Worcester State Lancers. The game started slow, though, with an impressive seven straight strikeouts coming from the Lancers’ Luke Brennan.
The Corsairs put up several hits in the third inning to hit the scoreboard for the first time in the 2017 season, with a 3-0 lead. The team had 5 different pitchers take the mound, and each kept Worcester State down, holding them to only 6 hits on the game.
The Corsairs added four runs in innings 6 and 7 to pull off a shutout, 7-0 UMass Dartmouth. Following their first game, the Corsairs headed down to Florida to participate in the RussMat Invitational, an event where dozens of teams come from all over to play for more than a week.
The first match of the Invitational was against Thomas More, and the Corsairs looked to continue their momentum by jumping out to a 7-1 lead in the first half of the game. However, the Saints knocked in six runs in the sixth inning, and kept UMass’ offense down. The final score was Thomas More 13, UMass 9.
The Corsairs then played the Trinity Bantams, and again began the game with a lead. Pitcher Dylan Collett struck out 7 batters in 5 innings, and the score was 4-1 in the fourth. However, by the seventh, Trinity had climbed ahead by a score of 7-4.
The eighth inning saw 4 runs batted in by the Corsairs, and UMass looked poised to take the victory. However, Trinity scored twice in the ninth to tie it up, and then scored once more to win in the tenth inning, to win 10-9.
Centenary College was next up, and the game was tight, up until the seventh inning. In that inning Centenary burst into a hitting streak, racking up 7 points in the blink of an eye. The final score was 14-5.
The Corsairs next played a doubleheader against the St. Norbert Green Knights, and the first match was a back and forth battle. Despite a home run and 4 RBIs from junior Mac Curran, the Corsairs fell to the Green Knights 10-6. UMass looked to strike back in the second game, but St. Norbert pulled out to an early lead.
The Corsairs climbed back, and tied the game up before inning 6. The sixth inning proved to be the most important one, as UMass Dartmouth put 3 runs on the board. Directly afterwards, rain came and cut the game short to give the Corsairs their first Florida win, at 8-5.
The Corsairs’ following game against the Ramapo Roadrunners didn’t go as successfully, giving up 5 runs in the fifth inning to take another loss, 7-3.
However, they did rebound in the following match, facing Springfield. An RBI in the top of the ninth from Puerto Rico native Ezequiel Sanchez took the team ahead by one, and the final score was with the Corsairs on top, 5-4.
Another doubleheader followed that, with UMass Dartmouth facing local college Endicott. Like the last doubleheader, the Corsairs lost the first with a score of 3-5, but won the following by a large margin, 11-4.
Their final Florida game was the best one, shutting out William Patterson with a score of 6-0. Pitcher Benjamin Lodge was throwing a no-hitter until the sixth inning.
The Corsairs headed back to Massachusetts with a 5-6 record on the season. Their very first home game is March 28 against Roger Williams University. Come down to the field and support our team!