MANHATTAN, KS – The UMass Lowell baseball team (3-5) dropped game one of the weekend series against the Kansas State Wildcats (5-3) 10-1 on Friday afternoon.
 
Senior Roddy Hernandez (Jersey City, N.J.) went 2-3 on the afternoon while junior Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) added two hits and one RBI. Graduate student Ryan Proto (Centerville, Mass.) and senior Trey Brown (Rochester, N.Y.) each tallied a hit.
 
Senior Brendan Williams (Auburn, N.Y.) fell to 0-2 after 4.0 innings with one strikeout. Graduate student Dylan Bedder (New Providence, N.J.) led the pitching core with three strikeouts in his UMass Lowell debut. Sophomore Brian Foley (Milton, Mass.) and senior Zach Fortuna (Newburyport, Mass.) each struck out two in 1.0 innings.
 
Both team's offenses struggled to get going in the first frames with the River Hawks striking out four times and the Wildcats flying out four times. Ryan Proto made a nice play in the bottom of the second, throwing out a runner attempting to steal second. Roddy Hernandez made the tag and UMass Lowell got out of the inning.
 
Trey Brown got the first hit of the day for the River Hawks with a single to center field. Roddy Hernandez followed with a single to center to put runners on the corners with one out. Alex Luccini's two-out RBI double brought in Brown to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. Williams picked up his first strikeout of the day in a 1-2-3 third to keep the River Hawks in front.
 
Kansas State took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth behind a two-run homerun to right field. The Wildcats loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth as Brian Foley entered the game to replace Williams. The sophomore picked up two strikeouts, but the hosts opened a 6-1 lead with four runs in the fifth.
 
Zach Fortuna took over for Foley in the sixth and struck two, escaping a jam with two on to keep UMass Lowell within five. Graduate student Frankie Venezia (Lyndhurst, N.J.) and Dylan Bedder made appearances on the mound, striking out one and three, respectively. The Wildcats took control of the game with four runs in the seventh and eighth innings, extending the lead to 10-1 heading into the ninth.
 
Ryan Proto led the ninth with a triple to right center field to put a runner in scoring position. The veteran was left stranded as Kansas State took game one 10-1. Game two is set for 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 2.