America East Baseball News & Notes: Great Start for River Hawks

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It is only the first weekend of the college baseball season and games are underway in America East. However, it was quite a beginning for the UMass Lowell River Hawks (3-1) under new head coach Nick Barese. They began a new era of River Hawks baseball by going to High Point University and taking three of four in their first series of the season. They would be the only team that won their opening weekend series, although weather did play havoc with both Bryant and NJIT who were not able to play their entire schedule in Florida because of bad weather. Binghamton and Maine were able to play their series, but could not get a win. Let’s take a look at the first weekend of baseball in the league.

The Bearcats (0-3) traveled to Houston to take on the Cougars and they would be outscored by a 23-6 count. The Cougars banged out 26 hits in the 3-game series. Binghamton’s Gabe Driscoll took the ball on Friday and was ok for his first start of the year. He went 4.1 innings allowing six hits, five runs, two earned runs, four strikeouts, and zero walks. Returning players Nick Rosseili (3-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, RS) and catcher Evan Sullivan (2-for-4) were the hitting stars in an 8-4 loss. On Saturday, Ryan Bates got the ball and went four innings allowing five hits, three earned runs, three strikeouts, and one walk in an 8-2 defeat. On Sunday morning, the two teams wrapped up the first weekend with Houston getting the 7-0 shutout win. Four Cougars pitchers combined on a four-hit shutout. They also hit three home runs. Nelson Berkwich got the start for Binghamton and gave them four innings, three hits, two earned runs, six strikeouts, and one walk. 3rd baseman Devon Bade had two of the four hits on Sunday morning. Next weekend, the Bearcats will be in Greensboro, NC to face UNC Greensboro in a three-game series.

The Bryant Bulldogs (0-1) have had a difficult time getting on the field because of rain. They would only get to play on Friday afternoon vs the University of Central Florida. The 12-11 loss to the Knights was triggered by an eight-run bottom of the 6th inning for UCF. It would be the Bryant bullpen that would struggle on Friday. Four pitchers would combine to give up nine runs, 11 hits, two walks, and a punchout. The positive was three hitters having three-hit games. LF Gavin Noriega (3-for-5, 3 RBI, 2 RS) SS Justin Hackett (3 for-5, RBI, 2 RS), and CF Gavin Greger (3-for-4, 3 RBI, 2 RS). Austin Wainer got the start and went 3.2 innings allowing four hits, three runs two of them earned, two walks, and two strikeouts. Bryant will try to get some games in this weekend when they head to Washington, DC to play George Washington University.

NJIT has the same problems as Bryant did in Florida. The Highlanders (0-3) were scheduled for a four-game weekend series with Miami. They would get three of those games in with Sunday’s game being the one that never got started. The Hurricanes outscored the Highlanders 43-9, however, it was Friday’s game that NJIT had a chance to steal. Miami jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings. The Highlanders came back and scored seven runs over the 4th and 5th innings to take a 7-5 lead to the late innings. NJIT got home runs from Albert Choi, a solo shot to left field, and then later a three-run bomb from RF Kevin Putsky just inside the RF pole. Miami tied the game in the seventh with two runs to make it a 7-7 game to the ninth. Holden de Jong was on the hill for NJIT and he allowed a walk-off hit to Hurricanes catcher Carlos Perez to give Miami an 8-7 win. The relief outing by de Jong did not go well. In 2.1 innings, he allowed 7 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 BB, 1 SO, and 1 WP. He would take the loss.

The Maine Black Bears (0-3) played three games with the Pittsburgh Panthers. A doubleheader on Friday, then a single game on Saturday. There was another game scheduled for later on Saturday vs St. Louis, but that was canceled due to weather. In game one of Friday’s doubleheader, 1st baseman and last year’s AE Player of the Year, Jeremiah Jenkins hit his first HR of the season. Third baseman Jake Marquez and RF Zach Martin each had three hits. Gianni Gambardella went five and allowed 8 hits, 8 rubs, 5 earned runs, 4 BB, and 4 SO. Game two of the DH saw the Black Bears get only two hits, one of them a HR by Marquez in the 8th. Pittsburgh took the game 7-4. On Saturday, the Panthers finished the series with a 13-3 win. Noah Lewis went five for the Black Bears and gave up 4 runs, and 3 earned runs on five hits. Lewis took the loss. The Maine bullpen gave up nine runs over the final three innings.

UMass Lowell (3-1) went to High Point and took three of four. The good times for the River Hawks started on Friday night. A game that would see them play from uphill, for the most part. They took a 6-5 lead to the bottom of the ninth inning. Andres Hulfachor was called out of the River Hawks bullpen to save the game. The first batter he faced was PH Dawson Harman who took him deep to RF for a game-tying HR. In the top of the 11th inning, UMass Lowell took care of business as DH Sean O’Leary, with the bases loaded, whacked a grand slam home run to RF off of Lucas Glover to give UMass Lowell a 10-6 lead. Freshman James Capellupo came on in the bottom of the 11th to get the win 10-6. After losing game one of a Saturday DH, UMass Lowell came back and took game two behind a three-HR performance by RF Carlos Martinez who transferred to Lowell from Pittsburgh. They also got a HR from graduate student LF Trey Brown to get an 11-9 win. Jacon Jette got the win with five innings of 6-hit, 4-run pitching. Hulfachor came back the next day and picked up the save. Sunday’s game was maybe the River Hawks’s best game of the weekend. The 6-1 win was led by a pair of freshmen arms. Alfred Mucciarone went five and gave up 4 hits and 1 earned run.4 BB, 3 SO. James Capellpo picked up the save going the final four, allowing zero hits and runs with 4 SO, and 2 BB. The River Hawks head to William & Mary this weekend.

UMass Lowell swept the weekly awards for the first week. The AE Player of the Week is Martinez whose slash line for the weekend was .599/1.222/.550 with nine hits and eight RBI overall. Seven of those hits were extra-base hits. He was 4-of-4 with five RBI and three HR in the 11-9 game two win on Saturday. Capellupo was the AE Pitcher of the Week. He made two appearances with six innings pitched. He allowed zero runs with eight strikeouts combined O’Leary was the AE Rookie of the Week. He slashed .353/.529/.450. He went 6-for-17 with six RBi, with 1 GSHR. All three players are getting their first career weekly award.

UMBC and UAlbany begin their seasons this weekend. Next week we’ll see how they did as well as the rest of the league.