Jenna Oelschlegel/Collegian

Riding a two-game winning streak, the Massachusetts baseball team hopes that when it faces Fordham Friday afternoon, the end result will be a little different from last season’s Atlantic 10 season finale between the two teams.

The Minutemen (6-9, 1-2 A-10) fell to the Rams, 13-10, in the final game of the 2008 season on May 17 and will face each other in New York in a weekend three-game set.

‘Fordham is a good ball club that has three good starting pitchers and they play tough, so we have to be ready to go,’ said UMass coach Mike Stone.

The Rams (6-13, 2-1 A-10) will be without infielder Rich Goulian who had a career day against UMass’ pitching staff last season in the final game of his career. Goulian went 4-for-5 at the plate with a home run, a double and five runs batted in to lead the Rams to victory.

The Minutemen enter the series having defeated Hartford on Wednesday afternoon, 6-4, as sophomore right-hander Garrett Butt was strong in his first career start. Mike Gedman, who leads the Minutemen with three saves, closed out the victory for UMass.

Offensively, UMass has been impressive as of late, outscoring opponents 30-13 over the past two games with some help from their outfielders.

Junior right fielder Mike Donato has a career-best eight game hitting streak, which is the longest hitting streak by any UMass player so far this season. Donato went 2-for-3 against the Hawks, while sophomore leftfielder Kyle Multner went 3-for-4.

But the Minutemen will face a Rams pitching staff that was impressive and that also got a lot of run support in two conference-opening victories over defending back-to-back A-10 champions Charlotte on March 20 and 22.

‘When you beat Charlotte two out of three at their place, you know you have a pretty good ball club,’ Stone said of Fordham.

The Rams combined for 15 hits in a 13-1 victory against the 49ers Friday, but were not effective the next day, as Charlotte defeated the visiting Rams, 8-5.

Each Fordham player reached base safely on Friday, while infielder Brian Kownacki went 3-for-3 with three runs batted in while registering one of the team’s five doubles on the day.

Senior pitcher J.P. Mack went 6 and 2/3 innings while giving up just one run on six scattered hits to improve to 2-2 this season.

On Saturday, Ryan McCrann and Danny Leach each had two hits for the Rams, but it wasn’t enough, as the 49ers got 10 hits and were smart at the plate, registering seven walks.

The Rams won the series with the 49ers Sunday with a three-run victory, 8-5, before losing by one run to Stony Brook on Wednesday, 11-10.

Holding on to leads has been an issue for the Rams bullpen, as the Seawolves came back with a late inning surge with four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to hold onto the win.

McCrann hit a home run and had three RBIs on two hits, while Stephen McSherry, Ryan Maghini and John Kahn had multi-hit games.

While the starters have been impressive for the Rams, the team’s collective earned-run average is 7.28 and they have a record of just 6-12.

Along with Mack, Jordan Grangard leads all pitchers with a 2.51 ERA in seven appearances, while five Rams pitchers have an ERA above 10.

David Brinch can be reached at dbrinch@student.umass.edu.