UNIVERSITY PARK, Penn. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (6-12) fell to the Penn State Nittany Lions (1-6) 21-14 in the series finale at Medlar Park on Saturday afternoon.
 
Junior Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) went 4-5 with a team-high five RBIs and scored two runs. Senior Trey Brown also went 4-5 with two RBIs and three runs. Junior Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) went 2-5 on the afternoon with six other River Hawks tallying a hit.
 
Graduate student Miles Cota (Hampstead, NC) led the team with five strikeouts in 4.1 innings of work. Senior Zach Fortuna (Newburyport, Mass.) looked good on the mound, striking out three in 1.0 inning. Senior Frankie Venezia (Lyndhurst, N.J.) and sophomore Jacob Jette (Franklin, Mass.) each recorded two strikeouts on the afternoon.
 
Trey Brown hit a leadoff single and advanced to second on a throwing error before coming in to score on Alex Luccini's double to center. Luccini stole third and then came in to score after graduate student Ryan Proto's (Centerville, Mass.) double to center field. The River Hawks got their third double of the first from junior Conor Kelly (Hopkinton, Mass.) who drove in Luccini to make it 3-0 UMass Lowell.
 
Senior Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) hit the third straight double and fourth of the inning to extend the lead to four, still with one out. The offense continued to roll in the first as Brandon Fish singled through the right side to score Genther from second.
 
Senior Roddy Hernandez (Jersey City, N.J.)  kept things going with a two-out single to put two on before Trey Brown's RBI single made it 6-0 River Hawks. Luccini cleared the bases with a three-run blast to left center, pushing the lead to nine. Sophomore Carlos Martinez (Coamo, Puerto Rico) singled up the middle before the Nittany Lions got out of the inning.
 
Penn State answered with five runs on five hits in the bottom of the first to cut the lead down to four before Miles Cota took over on the mound for the River Hawks. One more run came in to score before Cota ended the frame with a strikeout with UMass Lowell's lead now down to three. The graduate student struck out another hitter in a scoreless second.
 
Alex Luccini tallied his third hit and second extra base hit of the day with an RBI double to score River Hart and push the lead to 10-6. Cota struck out a third hitter in the third to keep the visitors ahead.
 
Three walks in the fourth loaded the bases for UMass Lowell before Brandon Fish grounded out to score one run. River Hart singled to short and scored another run, pushing the lead to 12-6. Penn State tallied two in the fifth to cut into the lead. Trey Brown put the River Hawks back in front by five with an RBI single in the top of the sixth.
 
Zach Fortuna took over in the sixth and struck out three hitters in a scoreless frame. Penn State tallied four in the bottom of the seventh to make it a one-run game. The Nittany Lions added eight in the bottom of the eighth to take a big lead late in the game. UMass Lowell did tack on one in the ninth but fell 21-14 in the series finale.
 
The River Hawks return to action Wednesday, March 20 at Holy Cross.