LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (22-26, 11-11 AE) evened the weekend series with an 8-1 win over the NJIT Highlanders (20-25, 9-10 AE) on Saturday afternoon.
 
Juniors Conor Kelly (Hopkinton, Mass.) and Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) each tallied two hits and one run on the day. Freshman River Hart (Nashua, N.H.) had two hits and two runs while fellow freshman Scott Donahue (Medfield, Mass.) had a team-high two RBI.
 
Senior Brendan Williams (Auburn, N.Y.) went 5.0 scoreless innings to earn the win and improve to 2-5 on the season. Freshman Alfred Mucciarone (Franklin, Mass.) got the start and went 3.0 strong innings with one earned run. Graduate student Dylan Bedder (New Providence, N.J.) made his first appearance since March 17 and tallied two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth.
 
The Highlanders took an early lead with two doubles in the first three at bats to take a 1-0 lead. UMass Lowell went hitless in the first two innings as NJIT took the lead into the third. Mucciarone escaped a jam in the third inning with runners on second and third, getting a big strikeout to keep the River Hawks within one.
 
Junior Brandon Fish (Londonderry, (N.H.) tallied the first hit of the afternoon in the bottom of the third and moved to second on River Hart's base hit. Conor Kelly's infield single scored Fish to tie the game before back-to-back wild pitches brought in the two baserunners to give the River Hawks a 3-1 lead.
 
The offense kept rolling as Alex Luccini drilled a double to right to put runners on second and third for sophomore Carlos Martinez (Coamo, Puerto Rico). An infield single from the sophomore scored Genther and pushed the lead to three. Scott Donahue's single up the middle scored two to complete a six-run, six-hit inning for UMass Lowell.
 
Brendan Williams took over for the fourth inning and struck out one in a 1-2-3 frame. The River Hawks tacked on two more runs in the bottom half as River Hart stole home and senior Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) came in to score from second on Luccini's infield single. Genther helped turned a double play in the top of the sixth to keep UMass Lowell's lead at seven.
 
Williams continued to pitch well in his return to the mound, striking out one in the seventh for his fourth straight scoreless frame. Another double play from the defense got Williams out of a jam in the eighth inning and brought the offense back to the plate.
 
Dylan Bedder took the mound for the final frame and struck out two hitters while River Hart made a highlight reel catch in left field to secure the win and even the weekend series. The finale is set for 12:00 p.m. at LeLacheur Park on Sunday, May 12.