River Hawks Battle to 7-6 Win at Boston College

Read Time:2 Minute, 48 Second

BRIGHTON, Mass. – The UMass Lowell baseball team (20-22, 9-8 AE) picked up another big non-conference win over the Boston College Eagles (21-22, 8-16 ACC) on Tuesday afternoon.

“Brendan Holland gave us a really good start and our offense got going early,” said head coach Nick Barese. “Offensively, I thought out situational, two-strike, and two-out hitting was solid. It’s a really good win for the program.”

Sophomore Carlos Martinez (Coamo, Puerto Rico) led the team going 3-5 at the plate, including a double and a triple, to go with two runs and two RBI. Junior Conor Kelly (Hopkinton, Mass.) had a great day at the plate going 2-3 with two runs and three RBI while fellow junior Brandon Fish (Londonderry, N.H.) added two hits and two RBI.

Graduate student Frankie Venezia (Lyndhurst, N.J.) improved to 2-1 on the season after 2.0 innings with one strikeout. Senior Zach Fortuna (Newburyport, Mass.) earned his first save of the year with a hitless ninth inning. Junior Brendan Holland (North Andover, Mass.) went a solid 4.0 innings with two strikeouts.

The River Hawks took the lead in the first inning behind Carlos Martinez’s team-leading 23^rd double of the season, driving in senior Frtiz Genther (Kingston, N.Y.) and junior Alex Luccini (Hopedale, Mass.). Conor Kelly’s two-out, two-run homer gave UMass Lowell a four-run lead in the opening frame. Brendan Holland got off to a good start with a 1-2-3 first to bring the offense right back to the plate.

Boston College answered in the bottom of the second, putting two runs on the board with a two-out single. Brendan Holland recorded his first strikeout of the day to end the second, but the Eagles cut the lead in half with two runs on three hits.

Martinez stayed hot with a triple in the third inning before coming in to score on a sacrifice fly from Conor Kelly to push the lead to 5-2. Frankie Venezia entered the game in the fifth inning with Boston College threatening to cut the lead. The Eagles tacked on one run, but a great catch from Luccini and double play got the River Hawks out of the inning with the lead intact.

Conor Kelly hit a lead-off single in the sixth and moved to third behind a wild pitch and fly out. The junior came in to score on a sacrifice fly from Brandon Fish, extending the lead back to three runs. Venezia threw a 1-2-3 sixth, capped off with his first strikeout of the day. Junior LJ Keevan (Holden, Mass.) took over in the seventh and threw another scoreless frame.

The River Hawks extended the lead in the eighth behind an RBI single from Fish. Boston College tallied three runs in the bottom half of the inning to cut the lead to one heading into the final frame. UMass Lowell couldn’t add to the lead in the top half of the inning, giving Zach Fortuna a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth.

The senior threw a shutdown inning to secure the win over the Eagles for the second time in three seasons and earned his first save of the season. UMass Lowell is back in action Friday, May 3 at UAlbany.