Baseball Suffers Setback Against UMass Lowell

Tuesday, April 5

West Point, NY

3:30 PM

Army West Point

10-18

Umass Lowell

11-13

UMass Lowell

Army West Point

Baseball Suffers Setback Against UMass Lowell

April 05, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score

WEST POINT, N.Y. – A four-run sixth inning for UMass Lowell lifted the River Hawks over Army West Point baseball, 7-5, on Tuesday afternoon from Doubleday Field.

"We gave our top three hitters a rest today, which gave some other guys an opportunity to step up and do some things," said head coach Matt Reid. "I thought a couple guys did, but we didn't string together enough quality at-bats. They're a good pitching team, for sure. We just have to make some more plays."

Lefty Patrick Gardner settled in early, needing just 13 pitches to retire the River Hawks in order. He utilized his defense behind him to induce an inning-ending 4-6-3 double-play.

The Black Knights managed to strike first in the home half on a single from John McCarthy that plated Josh White from second after an acrobatic slide allowed the freshman second baseman to dodge the tag at home. Center fielder Jacob Page added a sacrifice fly to right field to score Justin Reece to give Army an early 2-0 advantage on a couple of unearned runs.

UMass Lowell would respond in the second inning to bring the game even at two apiece. Oscar Marchena produced the big hit in the form of a two-run single that hopped over the outstretched glove of Reece at third.

The River Hawks had each of their next two leadoff hitters reach base, which would prove costly the second time around. Two strikeouts followed a leadoff hit batsman in the top of the fourth, but another errant pitch with the bases loaded cost the Black Knights the lead.

Army responded in the bottom of the inning after a one-out single by Page started the rally. Page and Alex Dickerson moved into scoring position two batters later, and a groundout to short by Trey Martin evened the score.

After UMass Lowell ran themselves out of the top of the inning, junior David Monge blasted his first-career homer over the left field wall to retake the lead, 4-3. The River Hawks answered in quick order, however, as a couple of singles to open the following inning allowed Joe Consolmagno to tie the game with a sac fly to right field. Back-to-back RBI singles by the visitors gave UMass Lowell a 6-4 lead. Another bases-loaded situation where UMass Lowell was hit by a pitch capped its four-run sixth inning.

Army cut the lead to 7-5 in the bottom of the inning. Martin led off with an infield single. Two batters later, Monge singled. An aggressive decision by the London, Ky., native allowed him to advance to third on a wild pitch that did not leave the dirt surrounding home plate. He would later score on an errant throw by Andy Savard.

Neither side was able to scratch across any more runs in the final three innings with each side being set down in order in the ninth.

The Black Knights return to action in the comfortable confines of Doubleday Field on Saturday as they welcome the Bison of Bucknell for the weekend series. Saturday's doubleheader is set to begin at noon while Sunday's twin bill is slated to begin at 1 p.m.

For more information on Army West Point baseball, visit GoArmyWestPoint.com and follow @ArmyWP_Baseball on Twitter.

GAME NOTES

David Monge hit his first-career home run … Monge recorded his second multi-hit game of the season … ninth game this season Army had 10 or more hits … Jon Rosoff's 11th multi-hit game of 2016 … John McCarthy collected a pair of hits for the fourth time this season … Stu Schley's seventh appearance of the season on the mound … Josh White started his 28th game of the season … only Black Knight to start every game of the 2016 campaign.