BOSTON, Mass.—#21 University of Southern Maine scratched across two runs in the top of the ninth inning, to spoil UMass Boston baseball's 2021 season and home opener Tuesday afternoon at Monan Park.
 
THE BASICS
#21 University of Southern Maine 7, UMass Boston 5
(UMass Boston 0-1, Little East 0-1)
(University of Southern Maine 12-6, Little East 4-3)

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
After falling behind 5-0 early, UMass Boston rallied all the way back to tie the game and had several chances to take the lead, before the Huskies scored two runs with two outs in the top of the ninth inning.
 
UMass Boston's bullpen played a key part in the Beacons comeback and ability to stick with the Huskies who were playing their 18^th game of the spring. Junior transfer DJ Lopes (North Dartmouth, Mass.), senior Mike Doherty (Brewster, Mass.), sophomore Thomas Kierce (Cohasset, Mass.) and sophomore Ethan Errera (Newington, Conn.) combined to limit Southern Maine to just four hits, one walk and two unearned runs over six innings. Lopes struck out two over two scoreless innings in his Beacons debut, while Doherty retired all six batters he faced and struck out three.
 
Offensively, senior Curtis Tirone (Waltham, Mass.) reached base five times and started UMass Boston's five-run rally with two outs in the fifth inning. Tirone finished the day 3-3 with two walks, a run scored and an RBI.
 
Sophomore Gianni Zarrilli, Jr. (South Glastonbury, Conn.) tacked on three hits of his own and senior transfer Craig Corliss (Hopkinton, Mass.) added two hits, a run, an RBI and the team's lone extra-base hit of the season (double).
 
Huskies reliever Bryce Afthim earned his second-straight win and fourth of the season. The freshman went the final 4.1 innings and allowed just four hits and two walks, while striking out four.
 
Senior shortstop Andrew Olszak led Southern Maine offensively by going 2-4 with a run scored and two RBI. Andrew Hillier reached four times (two hits and two walks) and junior catcher Jason Komulainen tacked on a double and two RBI.
 
Southern Maine jumped all over the Beacons in the first three frames.
 
Sam Troiano led off the game with a triple to right and scored one batter later on an Olszak sacrifice fly.
 
After the Huskies turned an inning-ending double play to end the bottom of the first, Southern Maine scored two more runs in the second and third innings.
 
Komulainen drove in Arlo Pike with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 and Olszak pushed the lead to 3-0 with a two-out RBI single that plated Tom Vesosky.
 
The Huskies took advantage of a Beacons error to make it 5-0 in the third. Vesosky drove in Hillier with a single through the middle and Komulainen dropped down a squeeze bunt to score Jonathan Wilson.
 
After leaving runners on in each of the first three innings, UMass Boston's offense broke out in a big way in the fifth inning. Aidan Blake (Lakeville, Mass.) opened the frame with a single and moved to second on a Ryan Leung (Brookline, Mass.) walk. After back-to-back strikeouts from Southern Maine starter Joshua Joy, UMass Boston connected for five-straight RBI singles.
 
Tirone started the rally with a single up the middle that bounced between the middle infielders to score Blake. Corliss followed with his first hit as a Beacon and Michael Comeau (Andover, Mass.) cut the deficit to 5-3 with a single to right field. Zarrilli ended Joy's day with another single up the middle. Nick Palma (Peabody, Mass.) greeted Afthim with a game-tying infield single. Afthim was able to stop the bleeding with a strikeout.
 
The Beacons had great chances to take the lead in the sixth and seventh innings. In the sixth, they loaded the bases with one out, only for Olszak to turn an inning-ending 6-3 double play. UMass Boston had runners at second and third with one out in the seventh but Afthim was able to induce a pair of groundouts to end the threat.
 
Southern Maine took the lead for good in a wild ninth inning. Errera retired the leadoff man, but Olszak reached on a throwing error with one out. After a Cam Seymour single, UMass Boston intentionally walked Hillier to load the bases. Errera induced a potential double play ball to shortstop, but the relay throw to first pulled Comeau off the bag and he was ruled to not have tagged the base in time to get Wilson for the third out of the inning. With a run in and runners at the corners and two outs, a pick-off throw ended up in right field allowing Seymour to make it 7-5.
 
Corliss doubled to lead off the bottom of the ninth, but Afthim would retired the next three batters to end the game.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Southern Maine leads the all-time series 46-19. UMass Boston leads 19-17 since May of 2006, including 8-4 since 2016.
• Five Beacons played their first games at UMass Boston, with freshmen Kevin Carrera (Sandwich, Mass.) and Max Andrade (Tewksbury, N.J.) each making their collegiate debuts.
• UMass Boston outhit the Huskies 11-10 but also were charged with three errors that led to four Huskies runs.
• Senior starting pitcher Tylor Arruda (New Bedford, Mass.) allowed six hits, five runs (three earned) in three innings of work. He struck out two and walked two.
• Today's season opener marked the second latest season opener in program history. The first game in program history was played on April 15, 1982: UMass Boston defeated Clark University 10-7.

WHO'S NEXT
 
UMass Boston will have a quick turnaround, as they will travel to take on Western Connecticut State University on Wednesday at 3 p.m. for another Little East Conference game.