Moloney Pitches UMass Baseball Past Maine, 5-3

March 18, 2016

AUBURNDALE, Fla. - Junior Ryan Moloney allowed just two earned runs over 7.2 innings in his start and the offense pounded out 10 hits to help lift University of Massachusetts baseball to a 5-3 win over Maine on Friday afternoon at Mickey Etherton Field. The victory improves the Minutemen to 2-7 on the season, while the Black Bears fall to 5-13.

UMass opened up the contest with two runs in the top of the first. After sophomore Brett Evangelista led off the game with a single to left, junior Dylan Morris lofted a ball over the fence in right for a two-run shot, his first home run of the season.

Maine responded by scoring twice in the bottom half of the inning to tie things up at 2-2. Danny Casals and Jeremy Pena started the frame for the Black Bears with back-to-back singles. The next batter, Tyler Schwanz, brought Casals in with a sacrifice fly and Pena scored the squad’s second run on an error when Kevin Stypulkowski reached on a fielder’s choice.

The teams remained deadlocked at two until the top of the sixth. Sophomore Hunter Carey drew a one-out walk and freshman Cooper Mrowka drove him in with a double down the left field line to put the Minutemen in front, 3-2. Mrowka advanced to third on a single by freshman Ryan Lever and later crossed the plate on an RBI ground out by junior Jon Avallone.

UMass added another run in the top of the seventh to increase its advantage to 5-2. Senior John Jennings belted a two-out triple to deep center and scored on an RBI single by Carey.

Maine took one of the runs back in the bottom of the eighth. Casals legged out an infield hit with one away and later came in on a two-out single to center by Brett Chappell. Stypulkowski drew a walk to load the bases for the Black Bears, but senior Evan Mackintosh entered the game for the Minutemen and induced a line drive to second to end the threat.

Mackintosh went on to pitch a hitless ninth and struck out two batters to earn his second save of the season. Moloney picked up his first win of the year (2-1) after limiting Maine to six hits, all singles and logging two strikeouts with one walk. Black Bears starter John Arel took the loss (0-3) after surrendering four runs on seven hits with two walks and eight strikeouts over six innings on the mound.

Evangelista (2-for-5), Morris (2-for-4) and Jennings (2-for-4) all had multi-hit performances for UMass with Morris contributing two RBI and scoring once. Casals and Chappell led Maine’s offense, going 2-for-5 and 2-for-4, respectively.

The Minutemen will be back in action tomorrow morning, Mar. 20, when the squad will face Lehigh at 11:30 a.m. in Winter Haven, Fla.

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Team Stats

Brett Evangelista

Dylan Morris

John Jennings

Hunter Carey

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics