UMass Lowell Makes it Three in a Row With 14-5 Win Over Bryant

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For the second day in a row, the UMass Lowell River Hawks (7-20, 2-4) put up double figures in runs against a Bryant Bulldog (13-13, 4-4) pitching staff that at times had trouble with pitch location. Saturday afternoon’s game was a tight one-run affair until the sixth inning when the River Hawks sent 13 men to the plate and scored nine of them. They would bat around again in the seventh, scoring three more times en route to a 14-5 win over Bryant University. The win gives UMass Lowell their first series win in America East. It also extended their modest win streak to three. It is still too early to tell if a turning point is developing here. But the last couple of days for Lowell have been better than any they have had this spring.

It starts with good starting pitching. The River Hawks received that from graduate senior Matt Draper (2-4) who settled down after a bit of a rocky first inning in which he gave up hits to the first three hitters in the Bulldogs lineup. The third hit by 3B Carmine Petrosa drove home the first Bryant run. A sac-fly by Gavin Noriega brought home the second and the Bulldogs were off and running with a 2-0 lead before the River Hawks had their first at-bats. Lowell got one of those runs back in the bottom of the first against Bulldogs starter Brett Wichrowski (2-1). An RBI single by SS Fritz Genther (two-hit, 2 RBI, 1 RS day) scored Robert Gallagher who had walked. Gallagher scored four times in the afternoon. 2-1 Bryant after one. Both teams traded runs in the third. Petrosa drove home his second run of the day on an RBI groundout that scored Derek Smith who with one out doubled to left field and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. 3-1 Bryant. The River Hawks got that run back on an RBI single by Alex Luccini (4 more hits on the day, 8 in two games) that scored Gallagher to make it a one-run game at 3-2 after three.

Draper settled in after the first and gave his team a solid outing of six innings, six hits, and three earned runs. He walked no one and struck out nine, threw strikes, got ahead of hitters, and kept his defense on their toes. Wichrowski was doing the same thing for Bryant until he tired in the sixth. His final numbers do not reflect how good he was (5.1 IP, five hits, four earned runs, two walks, and six strikeouts) It could be said that maybe Bulldog head coach Ryan Klosterman tried to get one inning too many from him. Because in the River Hawks’ sixth the game got away from Bryant.

The big hit in the bottom of the sixth came from Trey Brown off the River Hawks bench. Pinch hitting for Roddy Hernandez with the bases loaded, Brown delivered a two-run RBI single to right field that scored both Matt Tobin and Connor Kelly to give the River Hawks a 4-3 lead. His coach Ken Harring said after the game “I was a big hit for us.” From there the game went sideways for the Bulldogs. Their first pitcher out of the pen Mathew Stansky could not record an out from the six batters he faced. He allowed three hits and six earned runs, two wild pitches. Logan Frazier’s next-man-up was not much better, one inning four hits, four earned runs two wild pitches, and a balk. It got away from the Bulldogs in a hurry. River Hawks pen did what you are supposed to do with a big lead, throw strikes. Brendan Williams did give up two runs in the seventh. But his mates got those runs back by batting around again and scoring three more times in the bottom of the seventh. The game was 14-5 after seven innings. Drew Haight and Miles Cota threw an inning apiece of shutout baseball to finish the game with UMass Lowell winning 14-5.

Despite the three-game winning streak, Harring still believes “this team has more work to do.” They have dug a pretty big hole for themselves and really can not be satisfied with how this weekend has gone so far. OF Gerry Siracusa (2-for-6, three RBI, two RS) after the game talked about moving on from the first 25 games that did not go well for this team. He said, “The bus rides home have been tough.” He mentioned that there are plenty of voices in the clubhouse to remind the small group of freshmen that “this season is never over”. Baby steps are needed at this point to get this season turn around in the right direction.

On Sunday afternoon, one of those freshmen Nick DiRito will get the ball and go for the sweep of Bryant. First pitch on Easter Sunday is set for noon.