LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (11-22, 5-7 AE) fell to the Merrimack Warriors (9-22, 5-10 NEC) by an 8-7 score line on Tuesday night at LeLacheur Park.
 
Graduate student Robert Gallagher (Mullica Hill, N.J.) led the team with three hits and added one run and one RBI. Graduate student Gerry Siracusa (Kinnelon, N.J.) and sophomore Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) added two hits each, with Luccini tallying a team-best two runs and two RBIs. Sophomore Jake Fitzgibbons (Franklin, Mass.) hit his first career home run on Tuesday.
 
Freshman Brian Foley (Milton, Mass.) threw 5.0 innings and struck out four with four walks and two hits allowed. Junior Zach Fortuna (Newburyport, Mass.) came in for the ninth and struck out two with one walk.
 
Merrimack jumped to an early 1-0 lead as a solo shot to left field opened the scoring in the top of the first. Gerry Siracusa's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning tied the game at one.
 
The Warriors' offense took advantage of walks in the second and tacked on three runs on two hits to take a 4-1 lead. The River Hawks had runners on the second but could not cut into the lead. The visitors added three more in the third behind four hits to take a 7-1 lead.
 
Needing a response, the River Hawks looked to their veterans to make something happen. Robert Gallagher's single and Gerry Siracusa's double in the bottom of the third put two runners on for Alex Luccini. The sophomore stayed hot at the plate and drilled a triple into deep right center field to bring in both runners, cutting the lead to 7-3. A sacrifice fly from Trey Brown cut the lead to three runs after three.
 
Merrimack added an eighth run in the fifth to restore the four-run advantage at the midway point of the game. Brian Foley entered the game and pitched well over five innings, giving UMass Lowell a chance to make another comeback against the local rivals.
 
The comeback effort began with two runs in the eighth after Jake Fitzgibbons hit a solo shot to right field, his first career home run, to bring UMass Lowell within three. An RBI single from Gallagher cut the lead to two as the game moved to the ninth.
 
After a leadoff walk, Zach Fortuna shut the door on Merrimack with back-to-back swinging strikeouts to end the inning. The River Hawks' offense came back to the plate with one more chance to win it.
 
Trevor Crosby pinch hit in the ninth and found a gap with two outs to bring in Alex Luccini to make it a one-run game. The River Hawks could not find the tying run, however, and fell to the Warriors.
 
UMass Lowell has a chance to turn things around quickly with a trip to Kingston, Rhode Island to take on URI on Wednesday, April 19.