HARRISONBURG, Va. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (1-7, 0-0 AE) split the doubleheader with the James Madison Dukes (6-4, 0-0 SBC) on Saturday afternoon. James Madison won game one 11-5 and the River Hawks took game two 5-1.
"It was a good finish to a tough start. We came out and scored early in game one and didn't score after the fourth inning and then gave up a seven-run fourth and couldn't recover," said head coach
Ken Harring. "But
Matt Draper put us on his back in game two and we got a big two-out, three-run home run from
Fritz Genther. You need your veterans to step up and we got that today from those guys."
Game 1
Sophomores
Jacob Humphrey (Standish, ME.) and
Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) each tallied two hits. Fish had two RBIs with Humphrey scored two runs. Graduate student
Gerry Siracusa (Kinnelon, N.J.) and senior
Ryan Proto (Centerville, Mass.) combined for three runs and two hits.
Sophomore
LJ Keevan (Holden, Mass.) fell to 0-3 on the season, throwing 3.2 innings with seven hits, nine earned runs and three strikeouts. Seniors
Frankie Venezia (Lyndhurst, N.J.) and
Miles Cota (Hampstead, NC) each saw time on the mound and recorded one strikeout.
The River Hawks' offense going early in the game, scoring five runs in the first four innings. Siracusa's two-run home run in the first inning game the visitors an early edge. UMass Lowell and James Madison scored in the second before the Dukes tied the game in the third behind a solo home run from Fenwick Trimble.
Ryan Proto's double and
Brandon Fish's single brought in two runs to give the River Hawks a 5-3 lead in the fourth. James Madison answered in the bottom half of the inning, scoring seven runs on four hits.
Frankie Venezia entered the game in relief of Keevan and picked up a strikeout on the fifth.
UMass Lowell went three scoreless innings through the seventh inning while James Madison tacked on another run in the bottom of the sixth.
Miles Cota took over on the bump in the seventh and threw a scoreless inning with one strikeout. Junior
Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) hit a double in the eighth, but the River Hawks fell in game one 11-5.
Game 2
Graduate student
Matt Draper (Lowell, Mass.) was lights out for the River Hawks in game two of the weekend series. The veteran threw a complete game with 11 strikeouts and just one earned run and five hits allowed. Draper's shutdown performance gave the offense an opportunity to put runs on the board and even the series.
Fritz Genther led the offense with two runs, two hits and three RBIs thanks to a three-run home run in the third inning.
Brandon Fish and senior
Trey Brown (Rochester, N.Y.) each tallied one run and one hit while sophomore
Conor Kelly (Hopkinton, Mass.) and
Ryan Proto each added a hit.
UMass Lowell put together two hits in the first two innings but took a 1-0 lead after sophomore Jake Fitzgibbon's (Franklin, Mass.) fly out scored Genther in the second inning. Fitzgibbons played his part on the defensive end, catching Trevon Dabney stealing in the bottom half of the frame before Draper's back-to-back strikeouts finished the second.
Genther's three-run homer in the third pushed the lead to 4-0 and the River Hawks were in control. Draper threw five scoreless innings before the hosts got on the board in the sixth. Sophomore
Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) scored on a wild pitch in the eighth to give UMass Lowell a 5-1 lead. Draper continued to shut down the Dukes and struck out three in the bottom of the ninth, including two with the bases loaded.
With the win, the River Hawks pick up their first win of the season and even the weekend series. Game three is slated for 1:00 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park. Freshman
Nick DiRito is expected to start against JMU's T.R. Williams.
