University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
2-6
La Salle
0
UMass Baseball Downs La Salle, 5-3
March 14, 2000 | Baseball
March 14, 2000
La Salle 001 000 020 - 3 7 1
UMass 010 110 020 - 5 10 3
Cavallaro and Wittmeyer. Santos and Morgan. WP - Santos (1-2). LP - Cavallaro. 2B - Skeffington, Duffy. HR - Morgan. Attendance - 61 . Time - 2:10.
BRADENTON, Fla. -- Sophomore Jesse Santos (Chelmsford, Mass.) shut down the Explorer offense for a full nine innings, striking out 10 batters for his first win and leading UMass to a 5-3 win over La Salle on Tuesday night. The Minutemen improve to 2-6 with the win.
UMass grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Sophomore Chris Morgan (Cranston, R.I.) and junior Gavin Clark (Springfield, Mass.) both singled to lead off the inning. After a failed sacrifice bunt attempt, Clark stole third and later scored on a Kevin O'Connell (Hartland, Vt.) fly ball to deep center.
La Salle came back with a run of their own in the next half-inning. Jon Palumbo wallked with one out, then stole second and advanced to third on a single. La Salle leadoff hitter Kevin Whittmeyer hit a deep fly to left field, scoring Palumbo from third.
UMass scored one run in the bottom of the fourth and in the bottom of the fifth. Morgan sent the first Mike Cavallaro offering deep over the right field fence for a solo shot and his first home run of the season. Senior captain Shaun Skeffington (Fall River, Mass.) led off the bottom of the fifth with a double down the left field line. After stealing third, Skeffington scored on a wild pitch for the third UMass run of the game.
The explorers took advantage of two UMass errors in the top of the eighth inning. Duffy led off the inning with a double and scored on an errant throw from the cut-off man that ended up in the UMass dugout. After La Salle strikeouts, the Explorers hit two straight singles. Whittmeyer stole third and scored the game-tying run after the Morgan throw skipped into left field.
The Minutemen took the lead for good in the bottom of the eighth. Sophomore Connell Clark (Springfield, Mass.) led off the inning with an infield hit and advanced to second on an errant throw. After an intentional walk to Morgan, Gavin Clark laid down a bunt, advancing the runners one base. After another intentional pass by the explorers, Cavallaro uncorked a wild pitch, scoring Clark for the go-ahead run. O'Connell followed with an RBI single, putting the Minutemen ahead 5-3.
Santos went the distance for UMass, picking up his first win of the season and improving to 1-2 with the ten-strikeout performance. Cavallaro took the loss for the Explorers.
The Minutemen will be back in action again on Thursday in Bradenton. UMass will face La Salle in the second of a three-game series with the Explorers at 7:30 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Santos (1-2)
L: Cavallaro (0-0)
Batting:
2B: Duffy 1
RBI: Wittmeyer 1 ; Duffy 1
SF: Wittmeyer 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wittmeyer 1 ; Duffy 1 ; Palumbo 1
SB: Wittmeyer 1 ; Ibach 1 ; Palumbo 1
CS: Kelly, J 1
Batting:
2B: Skeffington 1
HR: Morgan 1
RBI: Gorneault 1 ; Morgan 1 ; O'Connell 2
SH: G. Clark 1
SF: O'Connell 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Skeffington 1 ; C. Clark 1 ; Morgan 1 ; Sarno 1 ; G. Clark 1
SB: Skeffington 1 ; Kulak 1 ; G. Clark 1 ; Senez 1 ; O'Connell 1 ; Seed 1
CS: Gorneault 1
PO: Kulak 1
