UNIVERSITY PARK, Penn. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (5-11) fell to the Penn State Nittany Lions (10-5) in game one of the weekend series, 3-2, on Thursday night.
 
Junior Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) went 2-4 with two solo home runs to score both runs for UMass Lowell. Senior Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.), junior Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) and sophomore Carlos Martinez (Coamo, Puerto Rico) tallied hits for the River Hawks.
 
Senior Brendan Williams (Auburn, N.Y.) falls to 0-3 after 5.0 innings with one strikeout and two earned runs. Graduate student Miles Cota (Hampstead, NC) and senior Zach Fortuna (Newburyport, Mass.) each tallied two strikeouts in 1.0 inning of work each. Sophomore Jacob Jette (Franklin, Mass.) went 1.0 inning with one strikeout and one earned run.
 
Williams got out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning after the defense turned a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame. The offense struggled to get going early, but Williams retired the side in order in the second inning to keep the game scoreless. Penn State took the lead in the third with two runs scoring with two outs.
 
UMass Lowell's offense could not find a rhythm and registered just one hit through five innings. Williams kept the River Hawks in the game, throwing scoreless fourth and fifth innings to keep the deficit at two. Alex Luccini hit a two-out solo home run in the top of the sixth to get the River Hawks on the board.
 
Jacob Jette took over for the bottom of the sixth as Williams finished with one strikeout and two earned runs in 5.0 innings. Penn State restored the two-run lead with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth.
 
Miles Cota threw a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts before Zach Fortuna took over for the eighth. Luccini hit his second home run of the night in the top of the ninth, a solo shot to right center, to make it a 3-2 game. The River Hawks had two on with two out, but both were left stranded as Penn State took game one.
 
Game two is set for Friday, March 15 at 5:30 p.m. at Medlar Field.