UMBC

Senior Joe Fowler had a two-run homer in the ninth in game one of the doubleheader on Saturday.

BALTIMORE—The UMBC baseball team dropped both sides of a doubleheader to Manhattan on Saturday as they fell, 14-7, in a nine-inning game and 4-3 in a seven-inning affair at The Baseball Factory Field at UMBC.

Junior Tom Meaney (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem) led the Retrievers on the day, going 4-for-7 with a home run, two runs scored, and two RBI over the course of the twinbill.  Meaney was 4-for-5 in game and made his only out during his fifth and final at-bat, while also recording a two-run homer in the seventh.

Junior Dan Blewett (1-1) (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) and sophomore Ed Bach (0-1) (Columbia, Md./Atholthon) suffered their first losses of the season as Bach gave up eight runs (five earned) on seven hits while walking two and striking out three in four innings of work.  Blewett went the distance in game two, giving up four runs on six hits, while striking out five.

Dom Lombardi led the Jaspers in game one, going 3-for-5 with runs scored and one batted in, while Marc Giordano was 1-for-3 with two RBI in game two.  On the mound, Tom Costigan and Matt Nevins earned their first wins of the season with Costigan lasting six innings and letting in three runs on 10 hits, while fanning four, and Nevins going six innings and giving up three runs (one earned) on four hits while striking out five.

The Jaspers had built a substantial, 8-0 lead, in game one by the bottom of the fourth thanks to two Retriever errors and a four-run, four-hit, fourth inning.

The Retrievers got on the board in the fourth off senior Will Delawter’s (Frederick, Md./Catoctin/Chesapeake JC) RBI single that plated senior Joe Fowler (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark’s) and then added two runs each in the sixth, seventh, and ninth, but couldn’t hold off the bats of the Jaspers as they fell, 14-7.

Freshman Rich Conlon’s (Vienna, Va./James Madison) RBI single and a sac fly from junior Wink Nolan (Ellicott City, Md./Calvert Hall/Maryland) gave the Retrievers two in the sixth, to put them down, 8-3, but after the Jaspers added four in the top of the seventh they saw themselves at a nine-run disadvantage.

Meaney cut that lead to seven runs with a two-run homer in the seventh, and each team recorded home runs in the ninth to add two more for a final of 14-7, including a two-run shot by Fowler. 

Game two saw the Retrievers take an early, 3-0, lead thanks to junior Scott Peddicord’s (Columbia, Md./Long Reach) RBI double that plated Nolan, Delawter’s RBI single to score Peddicord, and a double play ball that scored Delawter.

The Retrievers were held scoreless for the rest of the ballgame, however, as the Jaspers added a run in the second, two in the fourth, and the game-winner in the fifth off Lombardi’s RBI double as they held the Retrievers off, 4-3.

The Retrievers will embark next on an eight-game road stand as they travel to Towson on Tuesday, Georgetown on Wednesday and to Bradenton, Fla. from March 14-22 for spring training.  Their next home game is Tuesday, Marc 25 at 4:00 p.m.