VESTAL, N.Y. – Senior Trey Brown (Rochester, N.Y.) went 3-5 including a walk-off double to lead the #4 UMass Lowell baseball team (24-29, 11-12 AE) to a 5-4 win over the #5 UAlbany Great Danes (15-34-1, 10-13 AE) in the opening round of the America East Tournament.
 
"Our pitching was championship quality today. Simes gave us a great start and then for Williams and Fortuna to bridge the gap like they did was exactly what we needed," said head coach Nick Barese. "Banner and Albany did a great job keeping our offense in check, but we battled all day, had tough two-strike, two-out hits, and obviously Trey had the biggest hit of the afternoon."
 
Senior Zach Fortuna (Newburyport, Mass.) improved to 5-0 on the year with the win after throwing 1.0 inning with one strikeout. Sophomore Michael Simes (Rutland, Mass.) got the start and threw 5.0 strong innings with five strikeouts. Senior Brendan Williams (Auburn, N.Y.) went 3.0 innings out of the bullpen and struck out one.
 
Trey Brown led the offense going 3-5 on the day with two RBI. Sophomore Carlos Martinez (Coamo, Puerto Rico) went 2-4 with a home run and two RBI. Freshman Sean O'Leary (Foxboro, Mass.) also went 2-4 with one run and one RBI.
 
Simes started strong and struck out two in a scoreless first inning. The offense got rolling early as Trey Brown hit a leadoff single to left field. Brown moved to third after the Great Danes turned a double play before coming in to score on Carlos Martinez's infield single. Simes threw a 1-2-3 second to keep the River Hawks in front.
 
Sean O'Leary's double to right center score junior Conor Kelly (Hopkinton, Mass.) to double the lead for UMass Lowell in the bottom of the second inning. Trey Brown followed with a single up the middle to score O'Leary from second and push the lead to three.
 
The Great Danes got on the board in the fourth inning behind a two-run home run to left, cutting the lead to one. Simes tallied another strikeout in the fifth and got some help from the defense to end the frame with the lead.
 
Brendan Williams took over in the sixth before UAlbany tied the game at 3-3. The senior got out of a jam and struck out one in the seventh to keep the game tied as the offense came back to the plate. The River Hawks left one on in the bottom half of the inning as the game stayed tied.
 
UAlbany jumped in front, scoring their fourth unanswered run in the top of the eighth to take a 4-3 lead. Martinez tied the game in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer to right field, his sixth home run of the season. Zach Fortuna took the mound for the ninth and struck out the first batter he faced. A one-out double put a runner in scoring position. Fortuna got the fly out with two runners on to send the game to the bottom of the ninth.
 
With junior Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) on first and two outs, Trey Brown stepped up to the plate. The senior doubled to left center field to score Fish from first and give the River Hawks the walk off victory. UMass Lowell advances to the next round and will play either #1 Bryant or #2 UMBC on Thursday, May 23.