River Hawks Power Past Dartmouth, 11-6

Photo is courtesy of UMass Lowell

HANOVER, N.H. – For the first time since 2014 the UMass Lowell (14-14) baseball team hit three home runs in a game, as the River Hawks topped Dartmouth College (9-18), 11-6, in non-conference action at Biondi Park. 

Steve Passatempo (Medford, Mass.) connected on his seventh career homer in the third inning, a three-run bomb to dead center. Two batters later, Ian Strom (Hopedale, Mass.) hit a line drive just over the wall in right for his first career long ball. Joe Consolmagno (Worcester, Mass.) sent a two-run blast to right in the fifth inning. 

Mark Tumosa (Willington, Conn.) got the afternoon started for the River Hawks with a two-out RBI

single ripped to left, scoring Chris Sharpe (Burlington, Mass.) in the second inning. UMass Lowell's offense broke the game open in the third behind the Passatempo and Strom home runs.

Joe Consolmagno (Worcester, Mass.) and Oscar Marchena (Miami, Fla.) both were hit by pitches to begin the inning, and Passatempo sent Marc Bachman's second pitch of the afternoon over the wall. Strom extended the lead to 5-0 with his solo shot.

UMass Lowell added four more runs in the top of the fourth to open up a 9-1 buffer. Ben Prada (Laurel, Md.) and Passatempo both reached on errors, and after a wild pitch Sharpe brought both runners home with a single up the middle. Sharpe stole second, and came around on a Strom single, followed by Michael Young (Chester, N.J.) connecting on a deep double to left to score Strom. 

The hosts scored four runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth, off of four hits, a walk and a hit batter. Joe Purritano delivered the big knock with a one-out double to bring around the frame's first run.

Consolmagno built the River Hawks' lead to 11-5 following his two-run shot in the fifth, after Prada singled to start the inning.

Collin Duffley (Manchester, N.H.) earned his first career win for the guests, going 1.1 with one strikeout.  Behind the plate, Nick Barry (Grafton, Mass.) threw out two runners attempting to steal and picked off a runner at first in a bases loaded situation.

In UMass Lowell's 15-1 victory at UMBC on April 26, 2014, Danny Mendick homered twice and Matt Mottola added a third to mark to previous game the River Hawks hit three long balls in. 

The River Hawks head to Stony Brook for a three-game series from April 16-17, with a doubleheader on Saturday.