UMBC

BALTIMORE—The UMBC baseball team lost its fourth during the weekend and fifth straight, 17-2, to complete a Hartford sweep of the four-game series at The Baseball Factory Field at UMBC on Sunday.

The Retrievers (8-17, 0-4 America East) scored both of their runs off sacrifice flies by senior Steve Gale and junior Anthony Socarras, in the fourth and eighth innings, respectively.

Meanwhile, seven different players recorded RBI’s for the Hawks (7-16, 4-0 America East), including David Grossman who went 3-for-4 on the day with two runs scored, four RBI and one walk.

Chris Greiner took the win for the Hawks, letting in just one run and three hits in 6.1 innings of work, while junior Sean Rae took the loss, allowing five runs, four walks, four hits, and recording zero strikeouts in the first 3.0 innings.

Rae got off to a great start in the top of the first, retiring the top of the order in succession, all on fly balls, but began to fall apart in the second, walking his first batter, who then stole second, and advancing him to third on a wild pitch.  The next batter walked to bring up Grossman who batted in a run with a sac fly to give the Hawks the 1-0 edge.

Much of the same occurred in the third, with four runs scored on four hits and two walks, giving the Hawks a comfortable 5-0 lead, prompting the Retrievers to relieve Rae with senior Matt Buchholz.

Buchholz walked one batter in his first inning and the Hawks scored two runs on two hits to put them up 7-0, before the Retrievers finally jumped on the board in the bottom of the fourth.

Gale recorded the first of the Retrievers two sac flies in the fourth, earning them one run off two hits, and cutting the Hartford lead down to six.

The Hawks added two more to that lead in the fifth, one in the sixth, and seven in the seventh, taking a 17-1 lead before the Retrievers added the final run off Socarras’ sac fly in the eighth for a final of 17-2.

Hartford held a 23-7 advantage on hits, with each team committing one error.

The Retrievers host Navy in a Tuesday night game on April 10 at 7:00 p.m. before traveling to Maine for a four game series from April 13-15.