MERION STATION, Penn. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (2-11, 0-0 AE) fell to the Saint Joseph's Hawks (3-6, 0-0 A-10) by a score of 7-1 in game two of the weekend series.
Sophomores
Jacob Humphrey (Standish, ME.) and
Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) led the team with two hits each on Saturday. Senior
Ryan Proto (Centerville, Mass.) had one RBI on one hit while junior
Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) added one hit. Humphrey and Genther each added a stolen base in the loss.
Graduate student
Matt Draper (Lowell, Mass.) got the start and threw 5.0 innings with one strikeout and three earned runs. Draper falls to 1-2 on the season. Graduate student
Zach Rodgers (Parrish, Fla.) went 1.0 inning and struck out two. Freshmen
Jacob Jette (Franklin, Mass.) and
Brian Foley (Milton, Mass.) also saw time on the mound.
"Tough day all around. Their pitching has been very good at executing pitches when they need to," said head coach
Ken Harring. "We are fighting it offensively. We know we have a good offense and will break out soon."
After a scoreless first,
Fritz Genther picked up the first hit of the day for the River Hawks in the second inning with a one-out double to left center. The junior stole third but was left stranded. The Hawks opened the scoring in the bottom half of the frame with a two RBI double from Justin Igoe. Saint Joseph's added one more run to take a 3-0 lead into the third.
Ryan Proto's two-out single brought in
Jacob Humphrey to get UMass Lowell on the board in the top of the third.
Matt Draper had a good third inning, retiring the side in order to send the River Hawks' offense back to the plate. Saint Joseph's added another run in the fourth to stretch the lead to three runs through four.
Back-to-back scoreless innings for the River Hawks saw the visitors trailing by three in the bottom of the sixth.
Jacob Jette took over on the mound and threw a scoreless frame. The hosts tacked on a fifth run in the seventh inning behind a solo homerun from Luca Trigiani.
Brian Foley entered the game with one out and runners on the corners in the seventh looking to get the River Hawks out of a jam. Saint Joseph's offense stayed hot, however, and tacked on two more to take a 7-1 lead into the eighth.
Zach Rodgers threw a shutdown eighth inning with two strikeouts, giving the River Hawks offense one more chance to get back in the game. UMass Lowell went down in order to end game two.
The series finale is set for 12:00 p.m. at Smithson Field on Sunday, March 12.
