LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (22-27, 11-12 AE) fell to the NJIT Highlanders (21-25, 10-10 AE) 13-10 in Sunday's series finale.
 
Freshman Sean O'Leary (Foxboro, Mass.) went 4-5 with two home runs and five RBI to lead the team. Sophomore Carlos Martinez (Coamo, Puerto Rico) went 3-5 with three RBI while junior Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) and graduate student Ryan Proto (Centerville, Mass.) each tallied two hits.
 
Senior Andres Hulfachor (Nashua, N.H.) fell to 0-1 on the season after 3.1 innings. Senior Zach Fortuna (Newburyport, Mass.) went 3.1 innings with three strikeouts and one earned run.
 
Freshman River Hart (Nashua, N.H.) picked up where he left off in game two with another incredible diving grab for the first out of the game. The freshman makes his second highlight reel grab in two games against the Highlanders. Graduate student Miles Cota (Hampstead, NC) picked off the runner at first to end the frame.
 
Senior Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) and Alex Luccini got on base in the bottom half of the inning as Carlos Martinez took the plate. The sophomore drilled a shot to left center for his 25^th double of the season, setting the UMass Lowell baseball program record for single-season doubles, to score two runs and give the River Hawks the lead.
 
NJIT answered in the second inning with five runs on five hits to chase Cota. Sophomore Brendan Holland (North Andover, Mass.) took over on the mound and got an important first out. A sacrifice fly scored another run before Holland got the strikeout to end the inning. Zach Fortuna took over with the bases loaded in the top of the third with one out before another sac fly brought in a seventh run for NJIT.
 
Sean O'Leary's third homer of the year cut the lead to four through four innings. The defense turned a 4-6-3 double play to end the top of the fifth to bring the offense back to the plate. Martinez tallied a two-out, RBI single in the fifth inning to cut the lead down to three runs as the game moved to the sixth.
 
The Highlanders answered with a solo homer to lead off the sixth inning to restore the four-run lead. Andres Hulfachor took over for Fortuna and recorded the final out of the inning to keep the deficit at four.
 
Sean O'Leary doubled to left center to open the sixth before scoring on junior Brandon Fish's (Londonderry, N.H.)  single to left, cutting the lead to three once again. The offense continued to chip away as Luccini drew a walk and Martinez singled to put two runners on. Ryan Proto followed with a big double to score Luccini to make it a two-run game with runners on second and third.
 
O'Leary came up clutch again with a two-RBI single to right field to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. The River Hawks left two runners stranded, but three runs on three hits tied the game. Brandon Fish made a great line drive catch and Roddy Hernandez made two nice plays to complete a 1-2-3 inning for Hulfachor.
 
NJIT took a 9-8 lead with a two-out single in the ninth. The Highlanders then took advantage of an error and tacked on four more runs to take a commanding 13-8 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
 
After a one-out single from Proto, O'Leary hit his second homer of the day to cut the lead to three runs. The River Hawks could not find a way back and fell in the series finale and dropped the weekend series.
 
UMass Lowell returns to action Tuesday when Northeastern comes to Lowell for an afternoon matchup.