UMass Lowell Baseball: River Hawks Face 5-4 Setback at Duke

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DURHAM, NC – The UMass Lowell baseball team (3-8, 0-0 AE) fell to the Duke Blue Devils (8-5, 0-0 ACC) 5-4 on Wednesday night. The Blue Devils sweep the two-game series.

“Today was a better performance,” said head coach Ken Harring. “We competed in every aspect, but we came up a little short.”

Senior Robert Gallagher (Mullica Hill, N.J.) led the way going 2-4 with two RBIs. Freshman Jacob Humphrey (Standish, Maine) went 2-5, with two total bases and one RBI. Senior Gerry Siracusa (Kinnelon, N.J.) also went 2-4 on the day.

Freshman Brendan Holland (North Andover, Mass.) made his collegiate debut on the mound for the River Hawks. The rookie pitched well for UMass Lowell and struck out one with five earned runs in 4.2 innings.

“Brendan [Holland] made his debut and pitched well. He gave us a chance to win today.”

Duke opened the scoring in the second inning building a 2-0 lead behind a double and a sacrifice fly. The Blue Devils added a third run in the fourth to take a 3-0 lead heading into the fifth inning.

The River Hawk offense found a rhythm in the fifth, as sophomore Jimmy Sullivan (East Hampton, Conn.) kicked off the inning with a single to center. Sullivan advanced to third off two errors by the Blue Devils. UMass Lowell had runners on the corners when Humphrey’s double scored Sullivan to make it a 3-1 game. Gallagher then singled to center to bring in sophomore Roddy Hernandez (Jersey City, N.J.) and Humphrey to tie the game.

The Blue Devils answered in the bottom half of the inning with a double that scored two, giving the hosts a 5-3 lead. UMass Lowell cut the deficit to one in the top of the seventh, as Hernandez came in to score on a wild pitch. The River Hawks could not find the tying run in the final two innings and fell 5-4 to the Blue Devils.

A quick turnaround for UMass Lowell as the team heads to Charleston, South Carolina for a weekend series against College of Charleston. Game one is set for 4 p.m. on Friday, March 11.