In one of the longest days of baseball, the Massachusetts baseball team split its first home series against Northern Illinois. Starting pitchers Callen Powers and Adam Merritt carried their teams through 14 combined innings Friday. The pair accumulated over 200 pitches and 17 strikeouts between them, while limiting opposing hitters to a combined sub-.200 batting average across both starts.
Resilience was the name of the game at Earl Lorden Field. The first of the two doubleheader games started cold and windy, keeping fielders on their toes and muscles stiff. Powers took to the mound for his first home conference start of the season. The Haddam Neck, Conn., native looked right at home in the low 40-degree weather, refusing to disappoint the UMass (6-16, 2-12 Mid-American Conference) fans in attendance.
Powers’ 10 strikeouts and two hits allowed mark season highs, confirming that Earl Lorden Field favors its caretakers. He faced just three batters over the minimum through five innings and retired eight straight at one point, completely silencing the Huskies (17-9, 9-5 MAC) lineup.
After 116 pitches of hard work, the Minutemen led the game 3-0, in a perfect position to close their home opener. They did just that, sealing off any potential comeback opportunities in the bottom of the eighth.
In the second game just hours later, sophomore starter Merritt delivered one of his best performances of the year. Three earned runs don’t reflect all the battles and tribulations the West Hartford, Conn., native endured.
Merritt worked through multiple high-leverage situations, stranding five runners on base and forcing Northern Illinois to go just 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position against him. Long innings and tough at-bats surrounded the outing, yet Merritt gave his team a fighting chance.
The two starters combined for 220 pitches: a miraculous and necessary feat. Both pitchers had tough sixth innings followed by dominant final sevenths, combining to strike out the Huskies side twice in those closing frames, showing late-game composure that defines potential conference contenders.
“It’s always a battle with [Powers and Merritt],” co-head coach Max Weir said. “They don’t want to let go of the baseball…. They bust their butt, keep their bodies ready to go, and we’re very mindful of when we stretch them out and the situation. We’ve got all the confidence in the world.”
Down the stretch and into the back half of conference play, starting pitching becomes crucial. UMass was fortunate to need only four runs in the first game. The second proved to be more offensively challenging, with bright spots lighting the way through a rather untimely offensive performance
The Minutemen put together nine total hits in the second contest but struggled to capitalize, leaving eight runners on base and hitting into two key double plays.
Northern Illinois got runs on the board 13 innings into the day, in the fourth inning of Friday’s second game. Caden Robertson traded places with his teammate Cole Smith, who scored from second base. Two hitters later, a sacrifice fly brought Robertson home, marking just the third extra-base hit allowed by the UMass pitching all day.
This style of slow-moving, calculated baseball continued throughout game two, all the way through the ninth and into the eleventh inning. A single to center and a lapse in focus brought home two Huskies runners, putting the Minutemen in a hole they had worked all day to escape.
The last-ditch efforts almost worked as UMass loaded the bases. But with one out already, Northern Illinois secured its win and brushed off the sweep for the day.
If a 20-inning Friday proves anything, it’s that the Minutemen have the arms to hang with anyone in the conference. Now, turning dominant starts into complete wins with timely offense to back them will define how far they can go.
UMass and the Huskies will continue to battle it out at Earl Lorden Field on ESPN+ at noon on Saturday, April 4.
Matt Ford-Wellman can be reached at [email protected] or followed on X @MattFW_4.
