LOWELL, Mass. – Steven Passatempo (Medford, Mass.) delivered a walk-off double in the 10th inning as the UMass Lowell baseball team earned the series win with the 3-2 victory against Fordham on Sunday at LeLacheur Park.
With
Oscar Marchena (Miami, Fla.) standing at second after his double to left, Passatempo ripped a 2-1 pitch off the base of the wall in right, leading to him getting mobbed by teammates in shallow left field.
"It was a great job all around and it was nice to see
Henry Funaro pitch well two times in a row and to have
Joshua Becker and bullpen be solid," remarked Head Coach
Ken Harring. "For Oscar to come off the bench and get that double for us and for Steve to get it done was very gratifying. That was a very good Fordham team that we just beat, very well coached, and hopefully we can ride some of this momentum as we get back into conference play."
Henry Funaro (Lowell, Mass.) pitched five shutout innings and scattered two hits with strikeouts in the no-decision for the River Hawks (11-30).
Joshua Becker (Burlington, Mass.) picked up the win with his 3.1 inning shutout performance.
Passatempo and
Vinnie Martin (Lodi, N.J.) each recorded two hits for the hosts. Fordham's (26-19) Jake Baker led all hitters, going 4-for-5 in the effort.
In the bottom of the first, the hosts plated two runs without a hit behind a pair of deep sacrifice flies from Passatempo and
Cam Climo (Billerica, Mass.) scored
Robert Gallagher (Mullica Hill, N.J.) and
Joey Castellanos (Nutley, N.J.), respectively.
The run scorers reached on a walk and hit by pitch, and advanced into scoring position on a passed ball.
The Rams had their leadoff runner reach in four of Funaro's five innings, but the sophomore was able to avoid a runner reaching third base until the fifth, when the visitors loaded the bases. On the righty's final pitch he was able to get a swing and miss for his third strikeout of the outing to strand all three runners.
Fordham was able to score two in the top of the sixth to even the score on three hits, with the tying base knock occurring with two outs in the frame.
The River Hawks conclude a stretch of six consecutive non-conference contests as Northeastern comes to LeLacheur Park on April 30.
