LOWELL, Mass. – After dropping the first game of the afternoon, the UMass Lowell baseball team (13-27, 6-11 AE) came out on top with a 2-1 win over the Maine Black Bears (22-15, 12-2 AE) to earn a split in Friday's doubleheader.
"We didn't play great in the first game, really in any facet," said head coach
Ken Harring. "Then game two, low-scoring and well-pitched by both sides. [Jacob] Humphrey was really good today. [Matt] Tobin's hit was huge for us, that got us going. This was a must-win for us, and it wasn't pretty, but you have to win games like this to be successful. Now we look to tomorrow and try to win this series."
Game 1
Graduate student
Gerry Siracusa (Kinnelon, N.J.) led the team with 2 hits. Sophomore
Jacob Humphrey (Standish, Maine) and Siracusa each had a homerun and two RBIs each. Sophomore
Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) scored two runs.
Graduate student
Matt Draper (Lowell, Mass.) fell to 2-6 on the season after throwing 5.0 innings with six earned runs and three strikeouts. Freshman
Jacob Jette (Franklin, Mass.) went 1.0 inning and struck out two.
Matt Draper got off to a good start, striking out two in a 1-2-3 first inning.
Robert Gallagher had a single and stolen base in the bottom half but was left stranded in a scoreless first. After back-to-back singles to open the second, Draper escaped a bases loaded jam to keep Maine off the board. Jeremiah Jenkins' RBI double opened the scoring in the third. An RBI groundout made it a 2-0 game.
Brandon Fish and graduate student
Robert Gallagher (Mullica Hill, N.J.) drew walks before
Gerry Siracusa's two-out double to right tied the game at 2-2 after three.
Maine took a 6-2 lead in the top of the fifth with a two-out grand slam.
Jacob Humphrey's two-run blast in the bottom of fifth made it 6-4 score as the game moved to the sixth inning. Maine tacked on two more in the sixth inning to stretch the lead to four runs.
Junior
Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.), senior
Frank Wayman (Horseheads, N.Y.) and senior
Ryan Proto (Centerville, Mass.) hit three straight base hits to put load the bases in the bottom of the sixth with nobody out. The River Hawks had the tying run at the plate, but a 6-4-3 double play ended the frame.
Jacob Jette entered in the seventh and struck out two in a scoreless inning. Maine took game one of the doubleheader 8-4.
Game 2
Jacob Humphrey, senior
Trey Brown (Rochester, N.Y.) and senior
Matt Tobin (Poland, N.Y.) each tallied one hit. Humphrey and Brown each added one run while Tobin tallied one RBI.
Graduate student
Joshua Becker (Burlington, Mass.) went 7.1 inning with six strikeouts, no walks and one run to earn the win and improve to 3-2 this season. Sophomore
LJ Keevan (Holden, Mass.) went 1.2 innings and allowed just one hit to earn his first save of the season.
Joshua Becker got the start for game two and threw a scoreless first with one strikeout. The veteran threw three scoreless innings as the game moved to the fourth with no score.
Trey Brown had the lone hit through three frames for UMass Lowell. The River Hawks had runners on the corners in the fourth but left two stranded as the game stayed tied.
Joshua Becker threw five straight scoreless frames with four strikeouts.
Becker continued to dominate on the bump, picking up his sixth strikeout of the afternoon in a scoreless sixth inning.
Matt Tobin got the River Hawks on the board in the bottom of the sixth with a line drive down the left line to score Brown from first.
Maine got on the board in top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
Jacob Humphrey hit a leadoff single before stealing second and third to put the go-ahead-run in scoring position. The sophomore came in to score on a wild pitch to give UMass Lowell a 2-1 lead.
Becker got the first out of the inning before exiting the game, finishing with six strikeouts, one run and no walks.
LJ Keevan took over with one down in the eighth and escaped a jam with two on to keep the River Hawks in front. Despite a leadoff walk, the sophomore closed the game and secured the win for UMass Lowell.
