ORONO, Maine – The UMass Lowell baseball team (15-23, 7-11 AE) fell to the Maine Black Bears (19-14, 15-3 AE) in the series finale on Sunday afternoon.
 
"We are just having a tough time finishing games. The eighth and ninth innings are getting to us and we're not completing all 27 outs the way we should be," said head coach Ken Harring. "We're trying different combinations and we have four weeks to figure it out. We have a talented, gritty baseball club, we just aren't firing on all cylinders right now."
 
On the mound, senior Joshua Becker (Burlington, Mass.) got the start for the River Hawks and threw 8.0 innings. The senior struck out five and allowed four earned runs. Senior Sal Fusco (Colonie, N.Y.) threw 0.1 inning and allowed two earned runs.
 
Junior Cedric Rose (Pittsfield, Mass.) led the team with two hits on the afternoon and added one RBI. Senior Gerry Siracusa (Kinnelon, N.J.) scored a team-high two runs and added one hit and one RBI. Freshman Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) brought in two runs, a team-best on the afternoon.
 
The River Hawks got on the board first in the series finale. Senior Robert Gallagher's (Mullica Hill, N.J.) one-out double got things rolling before Gerry Siracusa's singled to left and made his way to third on a throwing error. The error brought in Gallagher to give UMass Lowell a 1-0 lead. Brandon Fish flied out to bring in Siracusa to double the lead.
 
Joshua Becker saw four batters in the first and allowed just one hit in a scoreless inning. Maine responded in the second inning, tying the game at 2-2. With runners on second and third, Becker struck out Schulefand and forced a ground out to escape the inning. After a scoreless top of the fourth for UMass Lowell, the Black Bears took a 3-2 lead in the bottom half of the inning.
 
With runners on second and third in the fifth inning, Siracusa reached on a throwing error, bringing in freshman Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) to tie the game. Fish then singled to left to bring in freshman Jacob Humphrey (Standish, ME.) to give the River Hawks the lead. Cedric Rose followed up with a single to the shortstop to score Siracusa, pushing the lead to 5-3. Becker struck out two in a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth to keep the River Hawks ahead by two.
 
UMass Lowell extended the lead in the sixth when sophomore Roddy Hernandez (Jersey City, N.J.) doubled to left before Luccini's RBI single made it 6-3. Becker picked up his fourth strikeout of the day to end the sixth with a three-run lead. The River Hawks could not add to the lead in the seventh, but another scoreless inning from Becker pushed the game into the eighth with UMass Lowell leading 6-3. Becker ended the seventh with his fifth strikeout of the day.
 
The Black Bears offense did what it has done all season and battled back once again. Jenkins' two-run shot in the eighth made it a 6-5 game. Gerry Siracusa made an incredible diving catch to help the River Hawks get out of the eighth win a one-run lead. UMass Lowell went down in order in the ninth and Sal Fusco took the mound to close out the game. A bases loaded hit by pitch tied the game at 6-6. Sophomore Brendan Williams (Auburn, N.Y.) took over with the bases loaded and one out. Jenkins was then walked, and Maine won 7-6 and swept the weekend series.