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News Release
Baseball Heads Back on the Road to Face Longwood
3/30/2012
 Head Coach Bob Mumma |
BALTIMORE, Md. – After a brief one-game home stand on Wednesday against George Washington, the UMBC baseball team (7-13) hits the road again, this time traveling to Farmville, Va. to take on Longwood in a three-game weekend series. The Retrievers and Lancers will play a doubleheader on Saturday with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. at Charles Buddy Bolding Stadium with the second game set to start approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of the first game. The two teams will return for a 12 p.m. start on Sunday.
In midweek action, the Retriever went 1-1, defeating Mount St. Mary’s, 7-3, on Tuesday before dropping Wednesday’s game to George Washington, 6-4.
In Saturday’s series opener, senior Luke DiBlasi (Pleasant Valley, N.Y./Arlington) (0-1, 7.84) will face Lancer righty Kyler Morgan (2-3, 4.30). The veteran lefty has made five appearances this year for UMBC, but his only start came in the second game of year against Wake Forest back on Feb. 24. DiBlasi last pitched against Buffalo on Mar. 14, going 1.1 innings without giving up and earned run.
Senior Steve Miller (Newark, Del./Dickinson) (0-3, 5.89) will get the ball for the Retrievers for game two on Saturday and will oppose Longwood freshman Zach Jordan (1-2, 7.29). Miller has held opponents scoreless in two outings this year and gave up only one unearned run to Wake Forest during the season-opening weekend in Winston Salem.
On Sunday, UMBC will send sophomore Shane Vlasic (Ashburn, Va./Broad Run) to the hill to take on Longwood. The righty is 2-2 this season with a 4.91 ERA in 33.0 innings of work. Vlasic has won two of his last three outings, including Tuesday’s victory over Mount St. Mary’s when he threw seven innings, giving up just two runs on four hits.
Offensively, the Retrievers are led senior Brian Klukowicz (Clifton, N.J./St. Peter’s Prep) who is currently riding an 11-game hitting streak which dates back to the 2011 season. The veteran outfielder is batting .405 (17-for-42) in ten games this season and leads the team with 15 RBIs.
Classmates Curtis Schickner (East Windsor, N.J./Lawrenceville Prep) and Max Himmelstein (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown) have also stepped up to lead UMBC. Schickner’s .309 average (17-for-55) leads every day players for the Retrievers while Himmelstein has hit a team-best four homeruns early in the year.
UMBC has also received production from a pair of freshmen who have started their careers with batting averages over .300. Infielder Ian Glassman (Basking Ridge, N.J./Rutgers Prep) (.307) and outfielder Anthony Gatto (Hauppauge, N.Y./Smithtown West) (.313) have each notched seven extra base hits this year and combined to score 24 runs and drive in 16 more.
This will be the last out-of-conference weekend series for UMBC. The Retrievers will begin America East play next weekend when they host Maine for four games, split over Friday and Saturday.
Last season, Longwood took two out of three games from UMBC at the Baseball Factory Field in Baltimore. The Lancers won both games on Friday, 11-0 and 8-4, before the Retrievers took the series finale on Saturday, 6-1.
Austin Drewyer threw a 100-pitch complete game to earn the win for UMBC while Himmelstein and Schickner each went 2-for-4 at the plate with a double.
DAWG BITES
- UMBC is 5-6 in away games this season, but have not played in the state of Virginia yet.
- While the Retrievers have not played in Virginia, they are 1-3 in games played outside of Maryland. (0-1 in North Carolina; 1-2 in Louisiana)
- Freshman Vince Corbi (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) is batting .438 (7-for-16) with runners in scoring position.
- UMBC has only played a single one-run game this year, a 3-2 victory over Tulane on Mar. 24.
- The Retrievers are 4-3 this season when hitting at least one homerun.