There is not a particularly long lineage of players in pro ball who got there from UMass-Lowell, but semi-recent draftees like Danny Mendick, who starred there for two years in 2014-15, do give some hope that there may be some hidden gems that remain in the program.
Saturday afternoon at Yogi Berra Stadium in Little Falls, NJ against NJIT was likely not the best day to be looking, as they were handily defeated, 10-2, largely let down by seemingly a lack of depth in high-leverage arms; none of their pitchers on the day were above 88, and their bullpen allowed seven runs over the final 3 2/3 innings after a largely competitive start by Miles Cota.
With that said, from an arms standpoint, there really isn’t much to say here. Isn’t to say they aren’t there as a whole, it just wasn’t evident on Saturday.
Bats? Are there definitive pro prospects here? Most likely no. But there were some performances/skillsets worth taking a look at despite the blowout loss, and who knows what the path could potentially be for any of these guys.
Fritz Genther recorded a three-hit day to lead the charge for the River Hawks, but it’s been a tough go for the undersized senior infielder thus far this year after a standout junior year in which he led the club with a .324 batting average. The five-foot-eight, 180-pound Virginia Tech transfer perhaps can use Saturday to get his year turned around, however, and has the bat-to-ball skills to where perhaps he could get a chance given plenty of recent examples of “smaller” players producing at the next levels. Had one defensive chance at shortstop all game, difficult to evaluate there.
Scott Donahue has performed well this year in limited action for UMass-Lowell, and the freshman catcher flashed what he can do with the bat a little bit with a triple to lead off the sixth inning. Solid oppo pop shown. Defensively, he struggled a bit with blocking — he allowed a run to score on a ball that went through his legs on a wild pitch. Not a baseclogger as a catcher when running. Some youth and upside here as development continues at the NCAA level.
Conor Kelly is a big, six-foot-three, 205-pound junior infielder who has also performed well when called upon; he’s hitting .276 with a homer and seven RBI in 17 games. Lefty bat that doesn’t have the power you’d expect given the size, but handled the stick well on Saturday with a multi-hit day, including a double. Good instincts/execution on bunt single. Corner profile-type body, however, and teams would want the kind of pop that he historically has not shown.
