UMass Buries the Crimson Baseball Drops Beanpot Semi

BOSTON--Fenway Park has not been a friendly place this year. Not only are the Red Sox flaunting one of the most dismal records since a 3-12 start in 1932, but yesterday the losing demons even possessed the Harvard men's baseball team (11-10 overall, 5-3 Ivy).

In a painful nine inning stint, the Crimson fell hard to the University of Massachusetts (19-9, 7-5 Atlantic 10) 13-2 in the annual Beanpot Tournament.

Things had appeared under control for awhile, but as each inning passed, the Harvard deficit seemed to just grow and grow.

Then in the fifth inning, in an offensive fury, the Minutemen expanded its lead and solidified its place in the Beanpot final game next Tuesday afternoon against the Terriers of Northeastern.

UMass sophomore slugger Muchie Dagliere (.404) started the attack with a thrashing double followed by a single to left by first baseman Justin Kelly.

That left two men on base for Nate Murphy. Mimicking Jose Canseco, Murphy belted a 400 foot shot clear over the right field wall, driving in three runs and giving UMass a commanding 8-0 lead.

The seventh inning was just as painful for the Crimson.

In the beginning, it appeared that Harvard was actually making a bit of a run at the Minutemen.

Harvard senior captain Marc Levy started the fifth inning by taking a pitch on his back.

With a runner on first and no outs, Harvard then managed to piece together a single by freshman Peter Woodfork and a walk to senior Scott Parrot.

In unglamorous fashion, the Crimson finally broke into the runs column off a walk in four pitches to freshman Hal Carey driving Levy home and bringing the score to 10-1.

However, UMass had its say in the bottom of the fifth. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases once again.

This time there was no long blast over the fence, but shortstop David Giglio did rip a single into left field to drive home the 11th UMass run.

A sacrifice fly to center field by the first baseman Ryan Hodgson only added insult to injury and made the lone Harvard run in the upper half of the inning seem minuscule.

"The thing about UMass is that they come right at you," Woodfork said. "They definitely deserve to be ranked where they are in New England."

Currently, UMass is ranked second in the eastern Atlantic 10 division behind rival Temple.

Coming into today's contest, the Minutemen were riding on a nine game winning streak over New England teams not in the Atlantic 10.

Not only does UMass have a team batting average of .333 which is ranked 18th in the nation, but starting junior pitcher Chad Paronto (five strikeouts) was on fire throughout his six innings of work against the Crimson:

"I think that we could have hit a lot better than we did or at least gotten better at bats," Woodfork said. "But you have to give [Paronto] a lot of credit."

In one stretch before an infield single by Harvard sophomore Brett Vankowski in the fifth inning, Paronto had retired 11 Crimson batters in a row.

Harvard did have its moments, led by two hits from junior Mike Hochanadel and a deep single in the second inning by center Dennis Doble off the famous Fenway Park "Green Monster" in left field.

Although Doble's hit did not result in any runs, it did accentuate the feelings of excitement and honor which surround historic Fenway Park.

"It was definitely exciting to play [at Fenway]," Woodfork said. "And even though I had played there before in all-star games, I still got a rush."

The great thing about this game for Harvard is that in the long run it doesn't really matter much.

The big games are coming up. In particular, a highly anticipated showdown against Ivy foe Yale this weekend could set the tone for the remaining part of the season.

In the meantime, however, the players can go home and forget about the score. In years to come the score will be forgotten, but the memories of Fenway Park will never fade. UMass  13 Harvard  2