Gallagher was halfway home when Bingham got a hold of the ball. A good throw would have nailed the runner easily. Instead Bingham's errant throw was to the first base side of home and Gallagher slid in to make it 1-0.
In the fifth inning, after Brown had retired nine men in a row, UMass again strung base hits together for another run.
Push and Shove
Third baseman Leo Kalinowski shoved a single to right with one out and was driven home a couple of pitches later by number nine batter Mike Stockley's double down the left field line. Again, hesitation on the relay allowed the run to score.
"I wasn't really worried when we were down 2-0," Brown said, "I knew that with the kind of ball club we had we'd come back. My job was to hold UMass down the rest of the way."
Hold them down he did, and Bingham's timed explosion in the sixth was just the thing to make the Minutemen yell "uncle."
Yes, my friends, it really is baseball season.
THE NOTEBOOK: Coach Loyal Park was pleased with the squad's first northern outing of the year, and surprisingly not concerned with the Crimson's meager total of four hits in the contest. "They're a good ball club, and we were a little anxious about opening today. It's a natural thing," he said.
Ratings are sure to change after yesterday's tilt. Going in, Harvard was ranked ninth in New England, while UMass stood fifth.
Park said yesterday that he's not far from finalizing a deal that would enable the team to play some games in Italy after the season. The squad would leave around June 9 and play from two to three weeks in Pastaland.
The Crimson meets a club team from Boston University in a scrimmage doubleheader on Saturday. Park said he'll start Steve Baloff in the first game and probably use his whole staff.