After a fly out to shallow left, Carter threw a wild pitch that allowed Minuteman outfielder Nick Gorneault to score and moved runners to second and third. Harvard then decided to walk Mike Kulak intentionally to set up a potential game-ending double play with light-hitting UMass shortstop Cullan Maumus due up.

“Nick’s got the breaking ball, so we thought we could get a ground ball and turn two,” Walsh said.

But Maumus—who entered the game batting .200 on the year—earned the game-tying RBI without even lifting the bat off his shoulder. Carter missed the strike zone on four straight pitches to force in the tying run.

In the very next at-bat, UMass executed a suicide squeeze play to perfection to plate the game-winning run.

“It’s tough bringing Nick in from third base especially after running the bases [in the top of the ninth],” Walsh said. “But he was the best guy we had available to use in that situation.”

The ninth-inning meltdown spoiled Harvard’s miraculous comeback in the top of the inning. After Carter’s two-out hit tied the game, catcher Brian Lentz slugged a two-run shot into the net over Fenway’s Green Monster to give the Crimson an 8-6 lead.

It was Harvard’s second lead of the day. In the fifth inning, the Crimson had scored twice on a pair of wild pitches by UMass starter Nick Skirkanich to take a 3-1 advantage.