River Hawks Fall 5-4 in Game Two at UAlbany

Read Time:2 Minute, 23 Second

ALBANY, N.Y. – The UMass Lowell River Hawks baseball team (10-21, 4-7 AE) fell to the UAlbany Great Danes (4-21-1, 1-10 AE) 5-4 in game two on Saturday afternoon.

Junior Fritz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) led the team with three hits and two runs on the afternoon. Graduate student Gerry Siracusa (Kinnelon, N.J.), senior Trey Brown (Rochester, N.Y.), and sophomore Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) each had an RBI in the loss.

Graduate student Matt Draper (Lowell, Mass.) went 4.0 innings and struck out two with two earned runs while freshman Jacob Jette (Franklin, Mass.) went 5.0 innings with three strikeouts and one earned run.

UMass Lowell’s offense picked up where it left off in game one with three hits in the top of the first. Despite the hits, the River Hawks left runners on the corners stranded. A leadoff double put a runner in scoring position early before an RBI single gave the Great Danes a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Another single scored a second run before a throwing error added a third run for the hosts.

The Great Danes gave Draper trouble in the early parts of the game, but the defense behind him came up with a double play before a routine flyout ended the second. The River Hawks’ offense was held scoreless as the hosts would hold the 3-0 lead into the fourth inning.

Back-to-back hits in the fourth put runners on the corners to set up the River Hawks’ first run of the game. Trey Brown’s RBI groundout scored Genther to get UMass Lowell on the board. Matt Draper escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, forcing back-to-back flyouts to end the inning. Jacob Jette took over on the mound in the fifth inning in relief of Matt Draper. A sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth gave the Great Danes a three-run lead once again.

Gerry Siracusa’a leadoff single and Fritz Genther’s double brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the sixth. Alex Luccini’s base hit to right field brought in both base runners to cut the lead to one. The River Hawks clawed all the way back into the game after Siracusa’s sacrifice fly that tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the seventh.

The River Hawks’ defense turned two again in the bottom of the seventh, ending the frame with a 4-6-3 double play. Jacob Jette made quick work of the eighth, sending the game into the final frame tied at four. The Great Danes would walk it off in the ninth and earn their first conference win of the season.

The series finale is set for 12:00 p.m., at Varsity Field on Sunday, April 16.