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It took a while, but the UMass Lowell River Hawks (16-26, 8-10) took a big series from Binghamton (20-19, 9-9) at Lelacheur Park over the weekend. Saturday night’s game was suspended after six innings because of heavy rain that moved through Lowell, MA. After waiting almost two hours for the weather to clear, the game was called and finished on Sunday. Then, the regularly scheduled nine-inning game was played.
Saturday night’s game was started by LHP Brendan Holland (3-5), a guy that head coach Nick Barese called “A really tough kid.” He would go the first six innings and throw 107 pitches, 67 for strikes, and retired nine of the first ten batters he faced, allowing only an infield single to Devin Bade in the first inning. In the third, he struck out the side. The River Hawks put up a crooked number in the third against Bearcats starter Vincent Luther (0-1). Four runs would cross the plate with the help of the stolen base, three of them, to go along with two errors and a wild pitch. Brayden Cali got the scoring started by doubling down the left field line to score Rowan Masse, who had walked and stolen second base. 1-0 Lowell.
Cali would then be on the back end of a double steal two hitters later to make it a 2-0 River Hawks lead. Alex Luccini stole second and then scored the third run during Jake Fitzgibbon’s at-bat by stealing third and scoring on a throwing error by Bearcats catcher Zach Rogacki to make it 3-0 UML. The scoring ended on a single to right field by Carlos Martinez that scored River Hart, who had reached earlier on a base hit to center. 4-0 River Hawks after three.
Both teams exchanged runs in the fourth. Evan Sullivan’s double scored Rogacki, who started the fourth with a base hit to left. The River Hawks answered that run in the bottom of the fourth on a Cali (2-for-4, 1 RS, 2 RBI) single to left that scored Ryan Strand, who had a single to right with one out in the inning. That run was charged to Ben Griffin, the first out of the Bearcats’ bullpen (2.1 IP, 3 H, 1 unearned run). Binghamton got that run back in the fifth on a sac-fly by Rogacki (2-for-4, 1 RS, 2 RBI). 5-2 UMass Lowell after five. They would get through the sixth inning, then the rain came and forced the game to be suspended until Sunday.
Both teams made pitching changes when Sunday arrived. For the River Hawks, Andres Hulfachor was called upon in the top of the seventh. He took care of both the seventh and eighth innings with a walk and a strikeout to his credit. In the ninth, he ran into trouble. A throwing error by River Hawks SS Cali, followed by a single to left by Mike Stellrecht, put runners on first and second with no outs. Out was Hulfachor (2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 ER) and in was Dylan Bedder. Bedder would get Matt Bolden to hit into a fielder’s choice that scored Logan Haskell to make it a 5-3 game. Rogacki then singled to left to score Stellrecht to make it a one-run game at 5-4. Bedder would get the second out on a fly ball to right field by Bade, which advanced the runner from second to third with two outs. With runners at the corners, Bedder got Freddy Forgione to hit a pop-up that started in shallow left field. With the wind hollowing out to right, the ball went from shallow left across the diamond to shallow right field. River Hawks SS Cali tracked the ball across the field and made the catch in shallow right to give the River Hawks a much-needed 5-4 win.
The scheduled game saw Nick DiRito (5-0) get the ball for UML. He would go the first five, giving up no hits, walking three, including two in the second inning. On the offensive side, UML received a big lift from Conor Kelly (2-for-2, 2 RBI). His coach praised his toughness after the game, coming through with run-scoring base hits to both gaps that scored the first two River Hawks runs in the second and fifth innings despite battling a hamstring injury. Both runs came off of Binghamton Starter Ryan Pachard (5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO). Binghamton scored a run off DiRito in the sixth on a bases-loaded single by Forgione that scored Bolton, who reached on a single to CF. 2-1 UMass Lowell in the sixth.
The River Hawks got the run back on a fielder’s choice RBI from Strand that scored Jake Fitzgibbons, who singled to start the inning off of Packard. 3-1 Lowell after six. Dirito worked a scoreless seventh (7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO) and turned the ball over to Bedder, who came back to try to finish his second game of the day.
In the eighth, he gave up a run when Rogacki took Bedder deep to right field for his sixth HR of the season. A no-doubt blast that made it a one-run game at 3-2. The River Hawks gave Bedder some needed cushion by scoring twice in the bottom of the eighth against Jackson Mitchell, the third Bearcats reliever of the day. Hart started the inning by walking, and he advanced on a fielding error by 3rd baseman Devin Bade of Binghamton. Hart would eventually score on a Mitchell wild pitch to make it a 4-2 game. Strand came around to cross the plate on an infield single and throwing error by Bade off the bat of Rowan Masse. 5-2 UMass Lowell. Bedder set down Binghamton in order in the ninth to pick up his second save of the day and his fourth of the year. River Hawks win 5-2.
Coach Barese said, “It was a good series win.” He liked the performances he got from his starting pitchers, who all went deep into their starts and all threw over 100 pitches. On Bedder, he said, “He is nice to have.” He is a guy who has some injury issues during his time at UMass Lowell, but he has become a reliable arm for this team during the spring. The River Hawks are now 2-1 on this eight-game homestand and face the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Tuesday night to continue the homestand.
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