Box Score


It was fifteen innings of baseball in “brutal” conditions before the darkness was, finally, declared a winner.
 
UMass Lowell and Stonehill battled to a 4-4 tie in a game called after 15 innings, Tuesday afternoon, at Lou Gorman Field in Easton, Mass.
 
“We've had a tough time closing out games,” says Coach Ken Harring.  “It's kind of weird; a tie game, I'm not a hockey guy.”
 
With the tie, UMass Lowell stands at 14-9-1 and 0-3-1 in the Northeast Division of the Northeast-10 Conference.  Stonehill, 15-9-1 / 3-3-1.
 
River Hawk starter Christian Lavoie (Hopkinton, Mass.) turned in a terrific performance, but did not get a decision.  The righthander went eight innings allowing two runs on eight hits. He walked two and struck out six.
 
“It was windy, cold, brutal conditions,” says Harring.  “He had twenty layers of clothing on, you tip your hat to him.  It was a gutty performance; he kept us in the game.”
 
Lavoie left, with a 4-2 lead, after eight innings of work and nearly 100 pitches.
 
UMass Lowell was unable to hold that lead, the home team sent the game into extra innings with two runs in the bottom of the ninth.
 
Sophomore Jimmy Ricoy (Lowell, Mass.) who came into the game hitting a lusty .341, had the River Hawks biggest hit of the day.  Ricoy's sixth inning triple off the wall in right put UMass Lowell on top 3-1.
 
The River Hawks entered the inning trailing by a run but evened the score with a bunt single, a walk and a Stonehill error.  That set the stage for Ricoy's heroics.
 
Stonehill narrowed the gap with a run in the bottom half of the inning, but Lavoie bore down and quieted Stonehill bats, pitching out of trouble, leaving two men on base, in the sixth and again in the eighth inning.
 
Sophomore Matthew Sanchez (Sunrise, Fla.) gave UMass Lowell what it hoped would be the insurance with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, but it was not.
 
The home team tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the inning to send the game into extra frames.
 
Senior Mike Sloban (Merrimac, Mass.), who'd been touched up for the tying runs in the ninth, settled down and kept the game knotted at four thru the 12^th inning.
 
Sophomore Geoff Fisher (Londonderry, N. H.) followed suit with three more scoreless innings of relief work.
 
“We buckled down and made the plays in the field,” says Harring.  “The pitchers battled and kept us in there.”
 
The River Hawks managed, only, seven hits in the ball game, two each by Ricoy and Sanchez.
 
The River Hawks get a day off before returning to LeLacheur Park for a five game home stand.  UMass Lowell hosts Post University on Thursday (3:30pm.)  Adelphi visits LeLacheur Park for a twin bill on Saturday; Pace University faces the River hawks twice on Sunday.