Xavier University Athletics
Musketeers Fall To UMass In A-10 Preliminaries
05.17.03 | Baseball
NORWICH, Conn. - Xavier suffered its first loss of the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championships on Saturday afternoon to Massachusetts, 8-5 Dodd Stadium.
The win puts UMass (26-17) into the A-10 Championship Series next weekend. Xavier will try to play its way into a rematch against the Minutemen tonight at 7:30 pm against the winner of Richmond/George Washington.
UMass jumped out to a two run lead in the first when Frank Curreri ripped a two-out two-RBI single to left field.
The Mintuemen tacked on a run each in the fourth and fifth innings before Xavier got on the board with two runs on two hits in the bottom of the sixth. A-10 First Team member Mark Andres had the big hit of the frame with a two-RBI single, which drove in Ryan Schreen from third and A-10 Second teamer Jay Johnson from second to cut the UMass lead to 4-2.
After the Minutemen got the two runs back in the top of the seventh, XU tallied three unearned runs in the bottom of the frame. A-10 Second Teamer Eric Grennwell drew a bases-loaded walk to plate Jason Morelli for the first run of the inning. Then Andres picked up two more RBI with a single to centerfield to score Kevin Mcknight and Eric Armstrong and make the score 6-5, UMass.
The Minutemen then put the game away with a pair of runs in the eighth on a hit and three Musketeer errors.
Sophomore Sean Finnegan got the loss after throwing the first 6.1 innings and allowing six runs, five earned, on nine hits while striking out seven. Senior Kevin Crowley threw the final 2.2 innings for XU and gave up two unearned runs on three hits while fanning two.
Andres finished with a 2-for-5 day including four RBI. Johnson was the only other Musketeer with multiple base hits as he went 3-for-5 with a double, stolen base and a run scored.
