Massachusetts Baseball Edges Out UMass Lowell, 5-4

AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts baseball edged out UMass Lowell, 5-4, at Earl Lorden Field on Tuesday afternoon, as freshman Jack Levine received his first career win on the mound. Graduate student Leif Bigelow collected his second save on the year after retiring the side in the ninth.

UMass improved to 22-23 on the year, while UMass Lowell dropped to 21-25 on the season.

Levine (1-0) picked up the win after allowing one run on two hits, no walks and striking out two in two innings of work. Bigelow closed out the ninth with two strikeouts to earn his second save as a Minuteman.

Kevin Skagerlind, Mike Gervasi and Matt Travisano led the team with two hits each, with Skagerlind and Gervasi recording their second and 14th home runs of the year. Six Minutemen followed with one hit apiece, while five players drove in one run each. Travisano scored two runs, and Skagerlind, Gervasi and Marc Willi all contributed one run on the afternoon.

The River Hawks took an early 1-0 lead in the first. The Minutemen tied up the game at 1-1 in the third. A one-out solo home run from Skagerlind put UMass on the board, marking his second long ball of the year.

UMass Lowell added two more runs in the top of the fourth with an RBI double and a sacrifice fly to take a 3-1 lead. In the bottom half of the frame, Massachusetts knotted it up again at 3-3. Travisano led off with a single up the middle, before Willi singled to center field. A sacrifice bunt advanced Travisano and Willi into scoring position, as Jake Given bunted to the pitcher to score Travisano. Jack Peters followed with a single of his own through the left side to drive in Willi.

The Minutemen grabbed the lead for the first time on the day as Gervasi led off the fifth with a solo long ball, marking his 14th of the season, to make it a 4-3 game. UMass added another run after Travisano and Willi had back-to-back walks with Travisano stealing second. Zack Zaetta hit a single to center field pushing Travisano across the dish to extend the lead, 5-3.

UMass Lowell had solo home run of its own to open the sixth inning to close the gap to one, but Massachusetts held the River Hawks to no runs in the final frames to win 5-4.

Frankie Venezia (2-2) took the loss for UMass Lowell, giving up two runs, all earned, on two hits and walking out two with no strikeouts in 0.1 innings.

Massachusetts heads to Easton, Massachusetts, to take on Stonehill at 3:30 p.m. on NEC Front Row.

Scoreboard

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Team Stats

Kevin Skagerlind

Mike Gervasi

Matt Travisano

Austin Burgess

Players Mentioned

Leif Bigelow

Mike Gervasi

Jake Given

Jack Levine

Jack Peters

Kevin Skagerlind

Matt Travisano

Marc Willi

Zack Zaetta

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics