LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell baseball team suffered a doubleheader sweep at the hands of UAlbany on Saturday afternoon.
The River Hawks (6-23, 3-5) held a 2-0 lead into the seventh inning of game one before the Great Danes (12-13, 4-4) rallied for the 5-2 win. In the finale, the visitors jumped out to an early lead and pulled away late for the 11-3 victory.
"It's tough whenever you get swept at home," commented Head Coach
Ken Harring. "Early on I thought our at bats were good against a very good pitcher, and had a chance to put a finishing touch on him but could not capitalize. In game two, they took advantage of timely hits and just beat us out there."
GAME 1
The River Hawks used small ball to plate their first two runs, using a hit and run and a sacrifice fly in the third and a sac bunt in the fifth.
After two and a half innings of scoreless play,
Ciaran Devenney (Manalapan, N.J.) led off the UMass Lowell third with a single and advanced to third on
Mark Tumosa's (Willington, Conn.) soft single with the hit and run call on. Following a Tumosa stolen base,
Cam Climo (Billerica, Mass.) lined out to left to plate the game's first run.
In the sixth,
Joey Castellanos (Nutley, N.J.) singled to lead off the frame and got to third following a sac bunt and a passed ball. With two outs, Young ripped a double into the gap in left center to double the River Hawk advantage.
After cutting the deficit in half in the seventh, UAlbany had its first four batters reach in the eighth to jump in front, 3-2. The visitors added two more in the frame to extend their lead to 5-2.
GAME 2
The visitors kept their momentum from the opener into the first inning of the latter half of the twin bill with a solo home run. UAlbany added four more in the third to open a 5-0 lead.
UMass Lowell began to chip away with two runs of its own in the bottom of the third behind a two-out rally that started with a Young double off the wall in right. Climo drove him in with a single, and
Andrew Roden (Sherill, N.Y.) doubled the junior home.
In the following inning, three straight River Hawks reached base with one out, and Castellanos scored
Oscar Marchena (Miami, Fla.) after a double for the redshirt junior.
The Great Danes opened the gap to 9-3 with four in the top of the sixth.
The teams will conclude the series tomorrow at noon.
