ALBANY, N.Y. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (21-24, 10-10 AE) split the Saturday doubleheader against the UAlbany Great Danes (11-29, 8-12 AE) to conclude the weekend series. The River Hawks took game two of the doubleheader 10-1, but UAlbany takes the series 2-1 after winning the first two games of the weekend.

"Miles Cota was fantastic. Offensively in game two we finally started to hit the ball down and hard," said head coach Nick Barese. "Credit to Albany, their pitchers did a great job living in the zone and attacking our hitters, and their offense put together tough, gritty at bats all weekend."
 
Game 1
 
Box Score – Game 1
 
Junior Conor Kelly (Hopkinton, Mass.) and senior Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) tallied two hits each to lead the team. Sophomore Carlos Martinez (Coamo, Puerto Rico) had one hit and one RBI while graduate student Ryan Proto (Centerville, Mass.) had one hit and caught one runner stealing. Junior Roddy Hernandez (Jersey City, N.J.) and freshman Sean O'Leary (Foxboro, Mass.) also registered hits in game one.
 
Freshman Alfred Mucciarone (Franklin, Mass.) fell to 2-3 on the year after getting the loss. The rookie went 3.2 innings with two earned runs. Senior Brendan Williams (Auburn, N.Y.) returned to the mound and went 1.0 innings and allowed two hits. Sophomore Brian Foley (Milton, Mass.) went 1.1 inning with one walk.
 
The River Hawks got on the board in the first inning after back-to-back hits from Conor Kelly and Frtiz Genther put runners on. Carlos Martinez hit an RBI single to right field to score Kelly and open the scoring. UMass Lowell held the lead through three frames after Mucciraone threw a 1-2-3 third.
 
UAlbany took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning, scoring two runs with two outs. Brendan Williams took over on the mound and escaped the inning with the River Hawks trailing by one. The hosts tacked on another run in the fifth to extend the lead to two. UMass Lowell's offense tallied eight hits in the game, but could bring across any more runs, falling 3-1 in game one of the doubleheader.
 
Game 2
 
Box Score – Game 2
 
Graduate student Miles Cota (Hampstead, NC) had an impressive outing on the mound after striking out six hitters and allowing just four hits in 7.0 innings. Fellow grad student Jack Sefrino (Dartmouth, Mass.) came in for 1.0 inning and struck out one. Senior Zach Fortuna (Newburyport, Mass.) closed the game in the ninth for the River Hawks.
 
Frtiz Genther tallied four hits on the afternoon to lead the team and surpass 200 career hits, an impressive milestone for the senior. Junior Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) scored one run to go with two hits and two RBI. Roddy Hernandez added three hits and three runs while freshman River Hart (Nashua, N.H.) tallied two RBI on one hit. Carlos Martinez continued to contribute to the offense with two RBI, one hit and one run.
 
The River Hawks loaded the bases in the first inning with three walks. Conor Kelly drew a walk with two outs to bring in senior Trey Brown (Rochester, N.Y.) to get UMass Lowell on the board first. Miles Cota struck out two in the bottom of the first to keep the visitors in front.
 
Alex Luccini's two-out, RBI single in the second inning gave the River Hawks a 2-0 lead before Carlos Martinez found the gap to right field to score two runs and push the lead to four. After Ryan Proto's single put two runners on, Conor Kelly singled to right to bring in the fifth run of the inning for UMass Lowell. The offense continued to rill as River Hart drove in two more runs with a double to left, extending the lead to seven. The second inning was the most productive of the weekend with the River Hawks scoring six runs on six hits.
 
Cota picked up two more strikeouts in a hitless bottom half of the second and one in the fourth inning. The graduate student was in complete control on the mound and threw a hitless third and fourth to keep UAlbany off the board. The game moved to the sixth as Cota tallied his sixth strikeout of the afternoon in yet another scoreless inning.
 
The offense continued to roll in the series finale as Scotty Brown tallied the 10^th hit of the game in the seventh inning to put a runner on. Brandon Fish drilled his second homer of the year to right field to push the lead to 9-0. Hernandez and Trey Brown added back-to-back hits to give UMass Lowell another runner in scoring position. Hernandez scored on a wild pitch and the River Hawks tallied their tenth run of the game.
 
UAlbany got on the board in the bottom of the seventh with a one-out, sacrifice fly.  The defense turned a 5-4-3 double play to end the seventh. Jack Sefrino entered the game for Miles Cota who finished with six strikeouts in a dominant performance. Sefrino struck out one in a scoreless frame.
 
Genther tallied his fourth hit of the day with an RBI single to right to score Hernandez and push the lead back to 10 runs. Zach Fortuna took over for the ninth inning and the defense turned another double play for the first two outs of the frame before a groundout ended the game.
 
The River Hawks pick up an important win to close the weekend. UMass Lowell visits Massachusetts on Tuesday before hosting NJIT for the final America East series of the regular season at LeLacheur Park.