Cashman Tosses Gem, Baseball Edged by Lowell, 3-1
Box Score | Highlights
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Despite a dazzling performance on the mound from sophomore Tim Cashman (Rowley, Mass.), the Merrimack baseball team could not get much going offensively, as the Warriors dropped their third consecutive game, 3-1, to UMass Lowell on Wednesday afternoon at the Warrior Baseball Diamond.
Moving to 18-9 overall while picking up their first Northeast-10 Conference Division loss of the year (4-1), Merrimack will look to regroup and prepare for a huge three-game set against Southern New Hampshire this weekend on the road. The River Hawks, meanwhile, picked up their first division win of the year, moving to 17-12-1 overall with a 1-3-1 divisional mark.
"Overall, that was a great Northeast-10 game," head coach Jim Martin said afterward. "Both pitchers threw well; we hit some balls hard offensively, but give Lowell credit. They made the plays they needed to make, including a few tremendous ones."
Despite yielding just three hits and all of his runs allowed being unearned, Cashman was the tough-luck loser on the mound, falling to 2-1 despite a complete-game, four-strikeout outing. Lowell starter Christian Lavoie moved to 2-1 after going eight innings and scattering three hits and allowing an unearned run. Mike Sloban pitched the ninth and locked up his third save of the year in the process.
For the Warriors, only four players registered hits, as the hosts outhit the River Hawks by a slim 4-3 margin. But the difference in the result came in Merrimack's three-error day, as all three Lowell runs in the fourth crossed by means of Warrior miscues.
After three scoreless innings, the River Hawks broke through for all three runs of the game in the top of the fourth. After the leadoff man reached on an error at third, the ensuing batter singled to put two on. After a second error plated a run on a fielder's choice, a sacrifice bunt pushed runners to second and third. One more groundout RBI later, UMass Lowell had a 2- lead, and Jacob O'Keefe rounded out the inning with an RBI double to center to push the visitors' lead to 3-0.
Merrimack responded with one run in the fourth, as Alan Pastyrnak Jr. (Bristol, Conn.) took first after being hit by a pitch and was the beneficiary of Lowell's only error of the game. Two batters later, freshman Matt Brown (Belmont, Mass.) ripped a single to right, scoring the speedy Pastyrnak from second and slicing the deficit to 3-1.
Unfortunately for Merrimack, both Cashman and Lavoie would pick up their game from that point on, and either side's defense was incredible at several points, including an extra base-hit robbing catch in left for the River Hawks and another fine, diving play in center with the Warriors threatening in the bottom of the ninth.
In total, Merrimack stranded six base runners compared to three for the River Hawks.
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