2017 NCAA DIVISION III NEW ENGLAND BASEBALL REGIONALS
Championship Round
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Whitehouse Field, Harwich, Mass.
FINAL: UMASS BOSTON 11, BABSON 8
HARWICH, Mass. – Senior Luke Nagle’s (Pembroke, Mass.) RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning plated the go-ahead run as top-seeded UMass Boston captured the 2017 NCAA Division III New England Baseball Regional Championship with an 11-8 victory over fifth-seeded Babson in the title game played Sunday afternoon at Whitehouse Field.
The Beacons, who improve to 37-10 overall, advance to next weekend’s NCAA Division III College World Series in Appleton, Wis. that begins on Friday, while the Beavers end their campaign at 29-15 after setting a program single-season wins mark.
The two teams traded two runs each in the third inning before Babson took a 4-2 edge in the fourth on an RBI double by sophomore Connor Gill (Sterling, Mass.) and a run-scoring single off the bat of senior Jake Weiss (Irvine, Calif.), but UMass Boston grabbed a 5-4 edge in the bottom of the frame on senior Dan Mantoni’s (Plymouth, Mass.) three-run homer to left. The Beavers battled back in the top of the fifth to take a 7-5 lead on an error and freshman Sean Harrington’s (Walpole, Mass.) RBI double, but the Beacons responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring single by junior Sal Frosceno (Derby, Conn.) and a two-run single off the bat of junior Josh Lopez (New Haven, Conn.) to take an 8-7 advantage to the late frames.
Junior Ryan Arena (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) evened matters one last time for Babson with a solo homer in the top of the seventh to set the stage for UMass Boston’s eighth inning rally, as Nagle’s go-ahead single was followed by a sacrifice fly by freshman Ryan McCormick (Cumberland, R.I.) and sophomore Charlie Huegi’s (Sandy Hook, Conn.) RBI single. The Beavers had the tying run at the plate in the top of the ninth, but Beacon junior closer Bryan Kaufman (Farmingdale, N.Y.) induced a game-ending groundout to send his squad to the national championships.
Lopez led an 11-hit UMass Boston attack with three hits on the day, as sophomore Bobby Tramondozzi (Peabody, Mass.) improved to 4-2 on the mound by picking up the win in relief for the Beacons. Weiss rapped out three of Babson’s 14 hits in the setback, as sophomore Max Tannenbaum (Coral Springs, Fla.) allowed two runs in the eighth to take the loss on the mound for the Beavers.
UMass Boston sophomore Nick Herzog (Riverhead, N.Y.) was named as the region’s Most Outstanding Player, and he was joined on the all-tournament team by Lopez, Nagle, Mantoni and Kaufman as well as teammates Kyle Boudrias and Matt Tulley. Weiss was joined by Babson teammates Jack Halpin, Eric Jaun, Eddie Lehr and Connor Gill on the all-tournament team, which was rounded out by Suffolk’s Sean Cameron and Chuck Gibson along with Salve Regina’s Cory Poplawski.