ALBANY, N.Y. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (24-27, 14-14 AE) took game one of the series against the UAlbany Great Danes (21-24, 10-18 AE) with a 5-4 win on Thursday afternoon.
 
"This was a big-time win for us. LJ [Keevan] set the tone with four scoreless innings and we got out to an early lead and kept tacking on," said head coach Ken Harring. "A big double play by Fritz [Genther] got us going and two RBIs from Conor [Kelly] and Alex [Luccini] really spurred us through the middle innings. Now we need to come back tomorrow and compete like we did today."
 
Freshman Jacob Humphrey (Standish, ME.), senior Robert Gallagher (Mullica Hill, N.J.) and sophomore Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) each tallied two hits in Thursday's win. Genther led the team with two RBIs and added in one run. Junior Cedric Rose (Pittsfield, Mass.) scored a team-high two runs. Humphrey continued his impressive base-running season with another stolen base.
 
On the mound, freshman LJ Keevan (Holden, Mass.) returned to the lineup and threw 4.0 scoreless innings and allowed just two hits. Sophomore Brendan Williams (Auburn, N.Y.) threw 3.1 innings and struck out three. Graduate student Ryan Towle (Westfield, Mass.) closed the game for the River Hawks, going 1.2 innings and striking out two.
 
The River Hawks opened the scoring in the second inning with an RBI double from Fritz Genther to bring in Cedric Rose for a 1-0 lead. LJ Keevan got out of the frame with help from the infield, turning a double play in a scoreless second inning. After being hit by a pitch in third, Jacob Humphrey stole second to put a runner in scoring position. Robert Gallagher's single to right brought in Humphrey to double the lead for the visitors. Keevan threw another scoreless inning to keep UMass Lowell ahead 2-0.
 
In the fourth inning, freshman Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) singled through the right side and moved to second after Rose was hit by a pitch. A sacrifice bunt moved both runners before Genther's sacrifice fly scored Fish. Freshman Conor Kelly (Hopkinton, Mass.) followed with a single to right and Rose came in to score to make it 4-0. Keevan continued to pitch well and the defense behind him did the job, keeping the Great Danes off the board through four.
 
Brendan Williams took over in the fifth inning for UMass Lowell. The sophomore escaped a jam with runners on the corners to keep the visitors ahead with a four-run lead. The River Hawks' offense went back to work in the sixth with Fritz Genther hitting a double to center. With two outs, freshman Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) singled to right to score Genther and make it 5-0 heading into the bottom half of the inning. UAlbany got on the board in the bottom of the sixth as Brad Malm scored on a wild pitch. Williams struck out two as the game moved to the seventh with UMass Lowell leading 5-1. The Great Danes added two in the seventh to make a two-run game.
 
With runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the eighth, Ryan Towle came into the game for Williams. The graduate student escaped the inning, forcing a groundout with runners on the corners to send the game into the ninth with the River Hawks ahead 5-3. UMass Lowell couldn't add to the lead in the top of the ninth and the Great Danes' offense returned to the plate.  
 
The Great Danes made it 5-4 on an RBI two-out double from Jason Bottari. With two out and a runner on second, Towle got Will Feil swinging, his second strikeout of the inning, to end the game and give the River Hawks a series opening win.