UMass Lowell losing streak is five with 11-9 loss to Binghamton

The Binghamton Bearcats (26-19, 12-10) made some errors as well, two to be exact. They came into this series with the 16th-best fielding percentage in the country at .980. Their pitching staff survived two big innings from the River Hawks to take game one of this series 11-9. It is the fourth straight win by the Bearcats over the River Hawks this season. With the result, UMass Lowell has now lost five in a row. After the game, Head Coach Ken Harring said, “it’s tough to win games when you make four errors.” How right he is.

Joshua Becker got the start which was his final one at Lelacheur Park. He did not have put away stuff on Thursday night, He did get off to a good start in the first. With the help of a 6-4-3 double play turned behind him, he breezed through the first inning. The same could not be said for Bearcats starter Thomas Babalis who gave up a four-spot in the bottom of the first as the River Hawks batted around. The first four batters in UMass Lowell’s lineup reached base on two hits and two walks. The last of which went to catcher Ryan Proto gave UMass Lowell a 1-0 lead. CF Alex Luccini FC scored the game’s second run. Back-to-back RBI hits from 3B Brandon Fish and LF Trey Brown gave the River Hawks a 4-0 lead. In the Bearcats’ second, they got those runs right back vs Becker. Three of those runs came on a 3-run HR over the right field foul pole from DH Christian Perez, his second of the year, and the game was tied at 4-4.

The Bearcats struck for four more runs in the second off of Becker. There was a questionable error thrown in on a fly ball that Luccini appeared to catch in center field. But the three umpires got together and said he dropped it. There were also run-scoring base hits from catcher Evin Sullivan (triple to RF) and a sac-fly from 3B Devan Bade. Becker’s night was over at that point (2,2 IP, six hits, eight runs, seven earned, two walks, two strikeouts) and Matt Draper came on and gave up the fourth run of the inning on an infield hit to deep third. Binghamton had an 8-4 lead after three.

The Bearcats added another run in the fourth. A two-base throwing error by River Hawks second baseman Robert Gallagher set up Nick Rossell to drive in the ninth run with a single up the middle. 9-4 Binghamton. UMass Lowell responded by tying the game in the bottom of the fourth. After 2.2 IP from Babalis (five hits, four earned runs, three walks, and four strikeouts), Dan McAliney came on and was treated roughly by River Hawks hitters. He hit Jacob Humphrey to start the inning and he then stole second base (31st of the season) and scored on Gallagher’s base hit down the RF line. Proto delivered a double to the left-center field gap to score Gallagher. Luccini was hit by a pitch and McAliney was replaced by Tommy Snyder. He gave up an RBI single to Fish. Connor Kelly came off the bench for Matt Tobin and singled to right to bring home both Luccini and Proto. The game was now tied at 9-9 after four innings of play.

The game settled down after the fireworks of the first four innings. It wasn’t until the top of the eighth that the Bearcats retook the lead once again. Another infield error, this one by Humphrey on a ground ball he mishandled at SS. Draper was lifted for Brendon Williams. After getting a ground out, he walked a batter intentionally. Kevin Gsell made Williams pay with a fly ball double down the RF line that was just out of the reach of RF Spencer Aubin. It scored Gavin Tully with the go-ahead run. They added one more on a sac fly to center by RF Mike Gunning and the Bearcats had an 11-9 lead going into the ninth. Jack Collins was called on in the ninth to put the game away and he did just that for his sixth save of the season. Binghamton wins 11-9. Snyder gets the win and he is now 3-1 and Draper takes the loss and falls to 3-8.

Several players on both sides had multiple hit nights. For Binghamton Gsell, Sullivan, Gunning, Stellrecht, and Logan Haskell had two-hit games. Humphrey, Gallagher, Trey Brown, and Fish, had a two-hit game for UMass Lowell. For the River Hawks, getting 27 outs is a real problem right now. Putting people back in the right places will go a long way toward solving this problem. LJ Keevan will try to stop the losing streak on Friday afternoon as he gets the baseball for the River Hawks. Gabe Driscoll starts for Binghamton. First pitch is at 1 PM.