#5 River Hawks Fall to #3 Binghamton 10-5

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VESTAL, N.Y. – The No. 5 UMass Lowell baseball team (20-35, 11-13 AE) fell to the No. 3 Binghamton Bearcats (28-22, 12-12 AE) by a score of 10-5 on Thursday night. The River Hawks have been eliminated from the America East Championship.

Senior Ryan Proto (Centerville, Mass.) and sophomore Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.) led the team with two hits each and combined for three RBIs on the night. Graduate student Robert Gallagher (Mullica Hill, N.J.) scored two runs to go with one hit and three walks. Sophomores Jacob Humphrey (Standish, Maine) and Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) each tallied a hit along with junior Fritz Genther’s (Kingston, N.Y.) one hit and two walks.

Sophomore LJ Keevan (Holden, Mass.) got the start and went 6.0 innings, striking out two with eight hits allowed. Senior Frankie Venezia (Lyndhurst, N.J.) and graduate student Zach Rodgers (Parrish, Fla.) each went 0.1 innings with one earned run each. Graduate student Shane Bogli (Vernon, Conn.) went 1.0 inning with one strikeout.

Jacob Humphrey and Robert Gallagher drew walks to open the game for the River Hawks. A wild pitch allowed Humphrey to cross the plate before Alex Luccini’s RBI single scored Gallagher to put UMass Lowell in front 2-0 early. The bats stayed hot with Brandon Fish drilling a double to left center to bring Luccini in from first, pushing the lead to 3-0 in the first inning. The defense looked sharp early, turning a 4-6-3 double play to end the first.

Binghamton answered in the bottom of the second with a one-out, two-run home run to cut the lead to one. LJ Keevan picked up his first strikeout of the night to end the second inning. The River Hawks’ offense stayed hot with back-to-back RBIs from Ryan Proto and Alex Luccini to put UMass Lowell ahead 5-2 in the third. Binghamton looked to rally in the fourth, but Luccini made two great catches at the wall to keep the Bearcats from cutting into the lead.

The defense stayed sharp, turning a 6-4-3 double play for the first two outs of the bottom of the fifth inning. LJ Keevan ended the frame with his second strikeout of the night to send the game to the sixth. The sophomore threw a scoreless sixth to keep UMass Lowell ahead by three with three innings to play.

The Bearcats got back within one in the bottom of the seventh behind a two-run home run to left center field. A triple to right field put the tying run in scoring position as Keevan exited the game. Simes took over on the mound and the Bearcats tied the game with a double to center.

Zach Rodgers entered the game with the bases loaded and one out before Robert Gallagher made a great play to get the force out at home. Two wild pitches brought in two runs to give the Bearcats a 7-5 lead. A two-out, three-run home run stretched the lead to 10-5 after seven.

Fritz Genther drew a walk and Ryan Proto’s base hit put two runners on in the top of the ninth. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, but UMass Lowell could not find a way back and fell 10-5, ending the 2023 season.