Teams: Baseball: Schedule & Results

COLLEGE BASEBALL FINAL SCORE
NCAA Championship Regional Game 14
UMass Boston 12, Tufts 6

At Willimantic, CT
Saturday, May 22, 2010

Game Box Score

Junior Ben Walkley scored two runs for the Jumbos

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. -- The University of Massachusetts Boston, the seventh seed in this week's NCAA Division III Baseball Championship New England Regional hosted by Eastern Connecticut State University, completed its undefeated run through the tournament with a 12-6 victory over top seed Tufts University in the final on Saturday afternoon to win their first regional championship.

Making their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, UMass Boston (32-15) advances to the NCAA Division III College World Series to be held in Appleton, Wisconsin beginning on Friday (May 28). Tufts, the regional runner-up, finished its school-record season with a 34-7 mark.

Trailing 6-3, UMass Boston scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth to take an 8-6 lead, highlighted by a two-run home run from catcher Tim Fontaine. Ryan Walsh also had a single scoring leadoff man Drew Tambling, who was hit by a pitch, stole second, and advanced to third on an error. A double steal by Walsh and Mark McCormack led to another Beacon run on a Tufts error. After Fontaine's shot to left, UMB manufactured another run with Reinfurt's single, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and a sacrifice fly by Jose Ramon Santos.

The Beacons added an insurance run after two were out in the seventh to lead 9-6. Connor Reinfurt was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. With one out he took second on a wild pitch. After remaining at second on a ground out, he scored on a single to right by Santos, who recorded his third RBI of the game.

Smelling the championship, UMB tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the eighth to take a 12-6 advantage. Jeff Outzen's two-run double was the highlight, while Mike Mattei also singled home a run.

Fontaine finished 3 for 5 with three rbi and two runs scored for the regional champs. Reinfurt, who had two hits, scored four runs, while Walsh, Mattei, and Santos also had two hits for the Beacons. Tim Cole was magnificent in relief for UMB, throwing four no-hit innings after Tufts had taken an early lead off starter Andrew LeBrun. Daniel Heefner recorded his third save with two hitless innings. In all, Cole and Heefner held the Jumbos hitless from the fifth through ninth innings.

Showing no signs of fatigue after finishing a 6-5 win in 11 innings over St. Joseph's an hour earlier, the Jumbos jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning. After UMass Boston starter LeBrun issued two walks and hit a batter, junior RF Chase Rose (Scottsdale, AZ) drove home the game's first run with a sacrifice fly to right. Senior Nate Bankoff (Lynnfield, MA), who had four RBI in the St. Joseph's game when Tufts staved off elimination, singled to center to put Tufts up 2-0. Two more runs came home on a UMass Boston error.

The Beacons cut the gap in half by scoring twice in the bottom of the first. With one out, Walsh and McCormack hit back-to-back singles. A single by Fontaine and a sacrifice fly by Reinfurt plated the runs and it was 4-2.

Bankoff and Rose both continued their production in the early innings. Bankoff had an RBI single in the second, scoring junior DH Ben Walkley (Trumbull, CT) who had walked. With one on and two out, Rose had kept that inning going with a single. In the fourth, after sophomore 3B Sam Sager (Cranston, RI) was hit by a pitch, Rose doubled down the left-field line to score him and make it 6-2. The Jumbos had a great opportunity to add to their lead in the fourth with runners on second and third with one out, but Cole pitched out of it.

After Gilchrist settled down and pitched 1-2-3 innings in the second and third, the Beacons added a third run in the fourth. Reinfurt walked, moved to second on a single up the middle by Mattei, and scored on a single down the left field line by Santos.

Bankoff and Rose both had two hits for Tufts, while Walkley and Sager both scored twice.

With clutch hitting and sensational relief pitching, UMass Boston controlled the later innings and went on to their first NCAA regional championship.

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