Maine takes the finale of series with UMass Lowell 11-5

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The mistakes keep piling up and so too are the losses. Heading into Saturday morning’s game at LeLacheur Park, the UMass Lowell River Hawks had a chance to take a series from the top team in the league and gain some momentum going into the final month of the regular season. Instead, seven walks and two hit batsmen led to a bad day at the ballpark for the River Hawks (13-28, 6-12). The Maine Black Bears took advantage of these gifts and made the most of them. It never hurts when two of your big three hitters come through for you at the right time. 1B Jeremiah Jenkins (3-for-4, 4 RBI, 2 RS, 1 HR ) and DH Connor Goodman (2-for-5, 3 RBI) did most of the damage in an 11-5 win for the Black Bears (23-15, 13-2).

River Hawks head coach Ken Harring said it best “A tough way to lose the series.” The mistakes and extra hitters per inning have been mounting up all year. Against a team like Maine, you are asking for trouble when you do this. River Hawks starting pitcher Nick DiRito (3-3) did just that. In his defense, some shaky play behind him did not help the cause, but as the coach said afterward “You need to make pitches when this happens.” DiRito did not do that. Case in point, the Black Bears’ top of the second inning. After striking out the first batter of the inning, Colin Plante, SS Jake Marquez reached on a throwing error by River Hawks SS Fritz Genther. Five of the next six hitters in the Black Bears lineup reached base. There was a sac fly thrown in as well. By the time the third out was recorded, Maine had four runs on the board. DiRito was finished after two innings. Location and secondary pitches just were not there for him on Saturday. It was a repeat of last weekend at UMBC for DiRito. Lowell got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning vs Noan Lewis (7 IP, 5 Hits, 4 earned runs, 4 walks, 8 strikeouts, 3 balks now 5-1 ). The balks would be a slight problem for Lewis. He balked home Trey Brown with UMass Lowell’s first run of the game in the second. At this point, Maine had a 4-1 lead.

Brandon Williams came on for DiRito in the third and had his share of issues. A three-run third by the Black Bears was highlighted by a 2-run single to left by Goodman that made it a 7-1 Black Bears lead. Lowell answered in the bottom of the third on a 2-run HR by CF Gerry Siracusa off the scoreboard in left. The blast was his third of the year and made it a 7-3 game. In the fifth, Lowell added another run. Jacob Humphrey led off with a double to left (2-for-4, 2 RS). He advanced to third on a pickoff throwing error by Lewis, then scored on an RBI single by Robert Gallagher. 7-4 Maine after five. Williams (4 IP, 3 hits, 3 earned runs) kept Maine at bay through the middle innings to give his team a chance late. He handed the ball to freshman Michael Simes in the seventh. Simes threw two scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, but in the ninth the heart of the Black Bears order got him.

Plante led off with a single to right. He advanced to second on a sac-bunt. With two outs, he scored on a base hit to left by Jake Rainess to make it 8-4 Maine. After a walk to Quinn McDaniels, Jenkins unloaded a bomb to right field on a 2-1 pitch for his 17th home run of the season. He now has 65 RBI on the year and is hitting .404. The blast put the game out of reach for the River Hawks as it was now 11-4 Maine. Lowell tacked on a run in the bottom of the ninth on a sac-fly by Gallagher that scored Frank Wayman who led off the inning with a walk vs the third Black Bears pitcher Ryan Scott. The final score from LeLacheur Park was Maine 11 UMass Lowell 5.

After the game, Ken Harring questioned a couple of decisions he made. One of those was not walking Jenkins in the ninth after doing that earlier in the game. The lack of big two-out hits, not making the correct plays on the field, and the overall inconsistent play of his team has him baffled. This will be a tough week because it’s finals week at UMass Lowell. So time on the field will be spotty at best which could be a problem with a hot NJIT squad coming to Lowell for a conference series next weekend.