Dartmouth Goes Down to the River Hawks, 11-6

Senior Joe Purritano stroked a pair of doubles and drove in two runs.    

Courtesy: David Silverman(DSPics.com)

HANOVER, N.H. — UMass Lowell belted three home runs to power its way to an 11-6 road victory over the Dartmouth Big Green on Tuesday afternoon at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park. All of the scoring came in the first five innings as the River Hawks evened their record at 14-14 while Dartmouth dropped to 9-18.

Steve Passatempo had the big blow for UMass Lowell with a three-run homer in the third, his seventh of the season, while Ian Strom added a solo shot two batters later and Joe Consolmagno a two-run blast in the fifth to cap the River Hawk scoring on the afternoon.

The Big Green outhit UML on the day, 11-10, as freshman Rob Emery went 3-for-5 and senior Joe
Purritano belted two doubles while scoring two runs and driving in two more.

After Mark Tumosa drove in the first run of the game with a two-out RBI single in the top of the second, Passatempo and Sharpe upped the River Hawk lead to 5-0 in the third with their home runs. For Sharpe, it was his first long ball of the year.

Dartmouth had a golden opportunity to put a dent in the deficit in the third after Purritano led off with his first two-bagger and the next three batters walked. But a pickoff left the Big Green without a run until sophomore Kyle Holbrook was hit by a pitch to force in a run. Kendall Pomeroy was summoned from the bullpen and needed one pitch to induce an inning-ending double play and preserve the four-run lead for UML.

A pair of errors in the top of the fourth allowed four more River Hawk runs to cross the plate, the last coming on Michael Young’s second double of the game. In the bottom half, the Big Green matched those four runs as Purritano brought home one run with his second double, and sophomore Justin Fowler, freshman Nate Ostmo and Holbrook each had an RBI to make it a 9-5 game.

Consolmagno cranked a 2-1 pitch over the fence in right field with a man on for his first home run to boost the UML lead back to six at 11-5.

At this point, the game was already two hours old, and it seemed like it would continue at that pace when junior John Melody led off the Big Green half of the fifth with a booming double to left-center and Emery singled him to third.

But like a storm dying out, the offense for both teams did as well. Purritano brought home a run on a tapper between first and the pitcher’s mound, and the last four innings featured a total of three hits — solitary Big Green singles in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.

Sophomore Jack Fossand came on to pitch for Dartmouth after Consolmagno’s homer in the fifth, and he and junior Jackson Bubala combined to shut out the River Hawks without a hit while walking just two and striking out five to restore order.

Collin Duffley (1-0) picked up his first win with 1.1 innings of one-run relief, entering after the four Big Green runs scored in the fourth to get the final out of the inning while stranding two runners.

Neither starter made it out of the third inning, with Dartmouth senior Adam Charnin-Aker (0-1) taking the loss for yielding three runs on two hits and a walk in two-plus frames.

The Big Green, 3-3 in the Ivy League, return to conference action this weekend when they travel to Brown (9-15, 3-5 Ivy) for a four-game series. The two teams will play doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday that begin at noon.

Notes: Melody's double was the first extra-base hit of his career ... UMass Lowell is now 8-5 against Dartmouth in a series that dates back to 1934, but this was the River Hawks’ first visit to Hanover in 18 years.