FORT MYERS, Fla. – The comeback effort fell just short as the UMass Lowell baseball team
(0-5, 0-0 AE) fell to the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (6-1, 0-0 ASUN) 7-6 on Saturday afternoon. The
series finale is set for 10 a.m. Sunday morning,
 
"Tough one today. [Nick] DiRito and [Miles] Cota did a really nice job keeping us in the game,"
said head coach Ken Harring. "We finally strung some hits together late to give us a lead. [Brian]
Foley had a tough outing, but he's a major piece of this team and he'll learn and get better from
this."
 
Senior Ryan Proto (Centerville, Mass.) led the team with two hits, including a double, and scored one run. Junior Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) had three RBIs thanks to his first home run of the year and scored one run. Graduate student Gerry Siracusa (Kinnelon, N.J.) scored two runs and tallied one hit and one RBI. Sophomores Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) and Conor Kelly (Hopkinton, Mass.) each added a hit.
 
On the mound, freshman Nick DiRito (Plymouth, Mass.) threw 3.2 innings and struck out four. Senior Miles Cota (Hampstead, NC) went 3.0 innings and allowed one earned run. Freshman Jacob Jette (Franklin, Mass.) went 1.0 inning, allowing five hits and two earned runs, and fell to 0-1 this season.
 
The River Hawks got off to a quick start as Gerry Siracusa got on thanks to an error by the Eagles' infield. The graduate student came in to score in the first, giving UMass Lowell an early 1-0 lead. The hosts answered in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs to take the lead. Nick DiRito entered the game in the second and struck out one in a 1-2-3 inning. FGCU extended the lead to 4-1 in the third on a base hit, but DiRito picked two more strikeouts and began to find his rhythm in the mound.
 
Florida Gulf Coast's Mason Miller was great from the start, picking up nine strikeouts through four innings. The freshman DiRito threw a scoreless bottom of the fourth, escaping a jam to keep UMass Lowell within reach. After being retired on order, the River Hawk defense stepped up. Miles Cota took over on the mound in the fifth and threw another scoreless frame.
 
Cota allowed a solo shot in the sixth, but escaped with just the one earned run as FGCU took a 5-1 lead into the seventh inning. Much like game one, UMass Lowell's offense took some time to get going, but Ryan Proto's two out single got the ball rolling for the River Hawks. Proto scored on a passed ball to cut the lead to 5-2, giving the visitors life. A nice double play helped escape the bottom half and got the UMass Lowell offense back at the plate.
 
The bats came alive for the River Hawks in the eighth inning, as the team scored another run thanks to an RBI single from Siracusa that scored Conor Kelly to make it a 5-3 game. With two on, two out and an 0-2 count, Fritz Genther drilled a shot to give UMass Lowell its first lead since the first inning at 6-5. Proto followed with a double to left but was left stranded.
 
Florida Gulf Coast tied the game in the bottom of the eighth on a sacrifice fly and eventually won the game in walk-off fashion, 7-6, and took the series victory. The series finale is set for 10 a.m. at Swanson Stadium. Graduate student Matt Draper (Lowell, Mass.) is expected to start against FGCU's Jacob Lojewski.