Baseball Falls Just Short of Beanpot Title

After finding itself in an early hole that kept growing as the Beanpot championship game wore on Wednesday night, the Harvard baseball team refused to go down without a fight.

Down 8-0 to UMass (12-13, 6-3 Atlantic 10) at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, the Crimson (8-26, 4-8 Ivy) staged a ferocious late inning rally to get within one run.

But with the tying run in scoring position with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Harvard’s attempt to win its first Beanpot title since 2005 fell just short, as the Minutemen hung on for an 8-7 victory.

“Obviously we wanted to win, so it was disappointing,” senior Marcus Way said. “I think we came out a little bit flat. But it was good to come back late in the game when we were down by so much, and to get so close in the end.”

After UMass plated three runs in the top of the seventh inning to make the score 8-0, the contest looked well out of reach. Minutemen starter Conor LeBlanc had been absolutely dominant to that point, recording 11 strikeouts through six shutouts frames. But the Crimson offense finally got going in the seventh, rallying for six runs to get back in the game.

Way led off with a long double, and junior Kyle Larrow dumped a single to right to put runners on the corners. Freshman Tanner Anderson then singled home Harvard’s first run, and after a pitching change, senior J.T. Tomes was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Senior Jeff Reynolds followed with a double down the left field line, scoring Larrow and Anderson, and a sacrifice fly by sophomore Jake McGuiggan cut the UMass lead to 8-4. Sophomore Stephen Dill then walked, and classmate Jack Colton doubled in Dill and Reynolds to make it 8-6 before he was thrown out at third.

“We just squared balls up, and they were finding holes,” Reynolds said. “Guys did a good job of getting pitches to hit and putting a barrel on them.”

After freshman Jacob Kremers held the Minutemen scoreless in the top of the eighth, the Crimson got within a run in the bottom of the frame. Following back-to-back singles by Larrow and Anderson, Reynolds ripped an RBI single to left center to score Larrow. But Anderson was thrown out trying to go first-to-third, ending the inning with UMass clinging to a one-run lead.

Captain Andrew Ferreira retired the side with ease in the top of the ninth, giving the Crimson one last chance. McGuiggan, the reigning Ivy Player of the Week, led off with a single to right against UMass closer Leif Sorenson. Following a pair of fielder’s choices, freshman Mike Martin stood on second with two outs. But Minutemen centerfielder Anthony Serino was able to snare a sinking liner off the bat of freshman Ethan Ferreira, ending the contest and giving the Minutemen their sixth Beanpot title and their first since 2008.

“Ferreira squared the ball up pretty good,” Reynolds said. “I thought it was going to tie the game, but they had their outfielders in, and obviously it got caught, so that was a bummer. But we battled back, and I think that’s good news for our team even though we didn’t win.”

UMass scored in each of the first three innings, often playing small ball to open up an early lead. Rich Graef and Kyle Adie led off the game with bunt singles against Harvard junior starter Danny Moskovits, and after Serino bunted them over to second and third, Tom Conley brought Adie home with a sac fly.

In the second, Tom Campero walked, advanced to third on a Dylan Begin hit-and-run single through the right side, and scored on a suicide squeeze by Nick Sanford. The following inning, Conley singled and Adam Picard crushed a two-run homer off the left field scoreboard to give UMass a 4-0 lead.

The Minutemen plated another run in the fifth on back-to-back doubles by Picard and Campero. In the seventh, Picard added his third and fourth RBIs of the day with a single to left-center off sophomore Samuel Dodge, scoring Adie and Conley, and a Colton dropped fly ball helped the Minutemen add an unearned run.

The Crimson outhit UMass, 15-11, led by Larrow and Anderson, the seven and eight hitters, who each went three-for-four. But that was not enough to prevent Harvard from suffering its second consecutive loss in the Beanpot title game, which was held at the home of the Lowell Spinners—the Red Sox’ single-A affiliate—thanks to this week’s 100th anniversary festivities at the tournament’s usual abode, Fenway Park.

“This was my fourth Beanpot,” Reynolds said. “There’s a lot of pride on the line.... It would’ve been great to take one, but it’s always been competitive, [and] I’ve really enjoyed participating.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.