UMBC

Mark Lemon was 2-for-3 with a RBI on Tuesday night.

Baltimore, Md. – The UMBC baseball team (10-18) lost 5-1 to Navy (26-10-1) on Tuesday night at The Baseball Factory Field at UMBC.  Zach Clark extended his hit streak to 18 consecutive games with one of UMBC’s six total hits.  Navy also recorded six hits in the game, but took advantage of four UMBC errors to score three unearned runs. 

Hits were scarce the majority of the game as both teams had three hits each after seven innings.  Navy starter Daniel Kovalchick (1-1) went the first 5.2 innings allowing one run on two hits with three walks and four strikeouts. 

UMBC’s lone run came in the second inning as a one-out walk to Isaac Friedel and a balk move Friedel into scoring position at second base.  With two outs, Mark Lemon singled to right field, scoring Friedel on the play. 

UMBC led 1-0 at that point.  Navy, however, would take the lead in the top of the third with two runs.  Jonathon Johnston would single and steal second and third before Mitch Harris walked.  Two passed balls and a wild pitch by the Retrievers allowed both runners to score. 

The Retrievers biggest threat to regain the lead came in the bottom of the seventh as the Retrievers loaded the basses with one out.  A strike out and fly out to center field silenced the Retriever rally. 

Navy in the top of the eighth added insurance, scoring two runs on a hit and an error.  They would add one more in the ninth as Dominic Lopez scored on a single by Johnston. 

Johnston went 4-for-5 in the game with a RBI and run scored.  Harris scored two runs and was 1-for-1 with three walks.  James Lee pitched 1.1 innings in relief while Ryan Hefner finished the final 2.0 innings for his seventh save. 

Lemon went 2-for-3 for UMBC while Brian Moran, Clark, Steve Bowen and Chris Cerullo all had singles.  Dan Blewitt went the first 3.0 innings, falling to 1-1 on the year after allowing two runs, one earned, two hits and four walks.  Sean Rae and Matt Buchholz each threw 2.0 scoreless innings while Mike Fitzpatrick gave up two runs in 0.2 innings and Tom Schlein gave up one run on two hits in 1.1 innings. 

UMBC returns to action on Thursday at 3 p.m. at Binghamton.  The game is the start of a four-game conference series that carries into a doubleheader on Friday and single game on Saturday.