UMBC

Senior Joe Fowler tallied his fifth home run of the year on Saturday night.

BALTIMORE—The UMBC baseball team gave up four innings in the ninth to fall, 11-7, to Vermont on Saturday night at The Baseball Factory Field at UMBC.  The Black Bears (14-17-1, 3-4 America East) built a 7-3 lead after three innings, but the Retrievers (11-22, 3-8 America East) slowly chipped away at the lead and tied it all up in the seventh before Maine tallied a nine-run ninth inning to put the game out of reach.

Senior Joe Fowler (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark’s) continued his hot streak on the weekend, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored, three RBI, a double and a home run, while freshman redshirt Austin Drewyer (0-2) (Ellicott City, Md./River Hill) suffered the loss after giving up four runs, three earned, on four hits, while striking out two in three innings of work.

Tony Patane led the Black Bears, going 2-for-4 with three runs scored, two RBI and a double, while Jimmy Cox earned the win after pitching 2.2 scoreless, one-hit innings in relief and fanning two batters.

After Maine took an early, 1-0, lead in the first, the Retrievers responded with two runs of their own off an RBI double by Fowler, which brought his school record career total up to 63 doubles, and an RBI single from senior Will Delawter (Frederick, Md./Catoctin/Chesapeake JC).

The Black Bears tied it all up in the top of the second, however, and would make it a five-run game with a five-run third inning.

The Retrievers began to chip away at that lead in the bottom of the third, cutting it to four with an RBI double from Delawter, then senior Mark Lemon (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark’s) cut the Maine advantage to three with an RBI single in the fourth, and a two-run shot to right by Fowler in the fifth made it a one-run game.

Senior Steve Russo (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) tallied the tying run in the seventh with an RBI single that plated junior Wink Nolan (Ellicott City, Md./Calvert Hall/Maryland).

Both teams would remain scoreless until the Black Bears tallied the final four runs of the game in the top of the ninth.

Drewyer walked the leadoff batter and gave up a single to the next Black Bear at the plate, but it was a questionable balk charged to the freshman redshirt that changed the flow of the game and put runners into scoring position for Maine.  After a strikeout by Drewyer, the Retrievers intentionally walked the next Maine batter to set up a force out at home and a potential double play, but a badly fielded ball by junior Brad Brainer (Chester, Md./Kent Island/Chesapeake JC) allowed a run to score and keep the bases loaded. 

The Black Bears would add three more runs to take an 11-7 lead going into the bottom of the ninth, where the Retrievers were retired in order with three fly outs, one each to center, left, and right.

The teams will play the four-game series finale on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at The Baseball Factory Field at UMBC.