Senior Will Delawter added the game-winning home run in the 10th to sweep the series against Hartford.

WEST HARTFORD, Conn.—The UMBC baseball team completed its first-ever four-game conference series sweep as it downed Hartford, 8-7, in extra innings on Sunday.  The Retrievers (16-23, 8-8 America East) added six runs in the fifth inning to take a 7-0 lead over the Hawks (14-24, 6-6 America East), but Hartford battled back and tallied three runs in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to a 10^th inning.

Senior Will Delawter (Frederick, Md./Catoctin/Chesapeake) tallied the game-winning home run with a  lead-off shot in the top of the 10^th, while redshirt freshmen Austin Drewyer (Ellicott City, Md./River Hill) earned the win, as he pitched four innings in relief , while allowing three runs, none earned, on four hits and fanning two batters.

Delawter led the Retrievers, going 3-for-4 on the day with three runs scored, one batted in, and the home run, while Andy Drexel led the Hawks, going 3-for-4 with one run scored, one run batted in and two doubles.  Bob Rogers (0-1) suffered the hard-luck loss after giving up the game-winning homer in the 10^th, his only run in five innings, while allowing just four hits and fanning seven batters in five innings of work.

The Retrievers took control early, adding one run in the top of the fourth on an RBI double from junior Shawn Retz (Baltimore, Md./Western Tech/Catonsville C.C.) and then took a commanding 7-0 lead with six runs in the fifth.

Freshman Rich Conlon (Vienna, Va./James Madison) started the inning off by reaching base and advancing to second on a Hawk error and then advanced to third off junior Wink Nolan’s (Ellicott City, Md./Calvert Hall/Maryland) single.

A double to deep left center by junior Scott Peddicord (Columbia, Md./Long Reach) plated both Conlon and Nolan, and after a Hartford pitching change, senior Joe Fowler (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark’s) made the second out of the inning, but advanced Peddicord to third, who scored on a wild pitch during Delawter’s at-bat to tally the third run for the Retrievers.

Delawter kept the inning alive by reaching on a walk and Retz followed in the same suit before senior Steve Russo (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) knocked one over the fence to complete a six-run inning for the Retrievers.

The Hawks slowly began to chip away at that lead, however, as they added two runs each in the sixth and the seventh and then knotted the score at seven with three runs in the bottom of the ninth.

Delawter would tally his team-leading eighth home run in the top of the 10^th, however, to give the Retrievers an 8-7 lead going into the bottom of the inning.  Drewyer retired the Hartford batters in order, notching both of his strikeouts on the day on the final two batters to give the Retrievers their first-ever four-game conference series sweep.

The Retrievers will return to The Baseball Factory Field at UMBC for a six-game homestand, beginning with a 7:00 p.m. contest against Towson on Tuesday and will play their final home series against Albany next weekend, beginning with a 3:00 p.m. doubleheader on Friday.