The UMass Lowell softball team couldn't sustain their lead in the nightcap against UMBC and were swept in a pair, 10-2 and 7-5, at UMBC Softball Stadium.
 
Retriever's shortstop Bridget O'Malley hit a three-run walk-off homerun with two outs against River Hawks starter Lauren Ramirez (Dracut, Mass.).
 
"We're close, and you feel for the team as we're trying to do whatever we can as coaches to put ourselves in the best position to win, and I know they're doing everything they can as players," said Head Coach Sean Cotter. "Were working hard, so hopefully that doesn't get lost in our record."
 
The River Hawks drop to 8-28 overall and 1-9 in their first season in the America East Conference, while O'Malley's heroics lift UMBC to a record of 26-16 and 4-6 in conference play.
 
The gut-wrenching defeat negated Kathryn Donovan's (Hudson, N.H.) go-ahead RBI single in the top of the seventh that had given the River Hawks a 5-4 edge.
 
Trailing 1-0 in the fifth inning, sophomore Brianna Martin (Methuen, Mass.) stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, and blasted the team's first grand slam of the season to center.
 
UMBC responded with three runs in the home half of the fifth to draw the game even at four before rallying against Ramirez in the seventh. The loss drops Ramirez's record to 2-10 on the season.
 
"She's getting more and more consistent," said Cotter. "She's learning, and she's learning the hard way but she certainly pitched well enough to win today."
 
The first meeting between the clubs as conference foes got away from the River Hawks early, as they faced a 5-0 deficit after three innings.
 
UMass Lowell countered with two runs in the top of fourth, starting with a leadoff single by Ariana Darcy (Kingston, N.Y.) who pushed her hit streak to five games. Darcy stole home on a double-steal with Ally Greene (Tewksbury, Mass.) who swiped second. Alyssa Zinkiewicz (Massapequa, N.Y.) then pushed Greene in with a line out to right.
 
UMBC, the top offensive team in the AE, got the better of Marielle Handley (Durham, Conn.), taking her deep three times. The Retrievers Bridget O'Malley and Taylor Hall clubbed back-to-back homeruns to left in the sixth inning to end the game under the eight-run mercy rule.
 
"We had three games in a row where we didn't play very inspired softball, and maybe there was some hangover from losing the second game against Binghamton," said Cotter. "We challenged them between games, and the second game was a great college softball game but unfortunately for us, we came up on the short end."
 
The teams will tangle again tomorrow at 11 a.m. with the River Hawks looking to avoid the three-game sweep.