UMBC

Reilly Ward hit her 10th homerun of the year in the fifth inning to lift the Retrievers to a 5-4 win over Stony Brook.

Stony Brook, N.Y. – UMBC sophomore Reilly Ward (Olney, Md./Sherwood) lifted a shot over the fence in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Retrievers (23-24-1, 6-7 AE) defeated Stony Brook (17-28, 7-6 AE), 5-4 on Monday afternoon at SBU’s University  Field in America East Conference softball action. The Retrievers will take on Binghamton (4pm) a day early because of poor weather conditions expected in that region on Wednesday.

Ward tallied her team-high 10^th homerun of the season, the sixth time in program history a Retriever has hit 10 homeruns in a year.  Three of those times were by senior Kristie Pickeral (Hughesville, Md./Thomas Stone) who has eight this year.  Ward’s 14 career homeruns ranks her fifth all-time.

Ward’s shot came in the top of the fifth inning with UMBC leading 3-2 and Amanda McGhee (Philadelphia, Md./North Hagerstown/Hagerstown C.C.) on second base. 

UMBC tallied their first three runs of the game in the third as Amanda Bile (Ellicott City, Md./River Hill) and Stevie Shore (New Castle, Ohio/Northwestern) led off with singles.  Kali Shirk (North Wales, Pal/North Penn) reached on an error that allowed Bile to cross the plate for UMBC’s first run of the game.  McGhee singled up the middle scoring Shore and Shirk for the three-run inning.

The Seawolves tallied single runs in the second, third, fifth and seventh inning with RBI singles by Jane Stein, Marissa Sevello and Rachael Vogl while a ground out by Christina Voth scored the other run.

The Seawolves loaded the bases in the sixth before Amy Sadowl (Horsham,Pal/Hatboro Horsham) worked her way out the jam by getting Suzanne Turek to fly out.  Sadowl went the distance for the win to improve to 9-4 on the year, one behind teammate Lauren Nicholson (Audubon, N.J./Paul VI) and Crystal Ray for the all-time career wins mark.  Sadowl went 7.0 innings allowing 11 hits, four runs, three earned with three walks given up. 

Sarah Hoffman went the first 4.2 innings allowing five runs on eight hits with a strikeout.  Hoffman falls to 9-10 on the year.  Voth finished the game allowing no runs in 2.1 innings with just two hits give up.   

Ward and McGhee each went 2-for-4 at the plate, driving in two runs a piece and scoring one.  Bile and Shore each went 1-for-3 with a run scored. 

The Retrievers return to action at Binghamton on Wednesday for the series finale at 2:00 p.m.  Each team owns one win in the series heading into Wednesday’s contest.