West Hartford, CT - The University of Hartford baseball team made history on Wednesday afternoon, not only did they play the first game back on the West Hartford campus in more than 20 years but they defeated the University of Massachusetts (2-11) 6-2. The last Hartford (2-17) victory on campus was on April 23, 1982. The Hawks used back-to-back home runs in the second inning to open the scoring. The game was the first on campus since April 27, 1985 (7,640 days).
Erik Price (Cameron Park, Calif./Hilliard Davidson) and Derek Litke (Windsor, Conn./Marietta College) played long ball on consecutive at-bats to give Hartford the early 2-0 cushion. Litke's home run makes him not only the first Hartford player whose father also played baseball as a Hawk, but the first father-son pair to hit home runs as Hartford Hawks. "It's great to be home boy's," said Litke after smacking a long ball over the center field fence.
The Hawks pitching was the key to the game for head coach Jeff Calcaterra, who won his eighth game as a head coach. Junior Jason Krajeski (Woodbury, Conn./Nonnewaug) picked up his first win of the season after starting the game and lasting seven innings on the mound. He faced a total of 27 batters and allowed only two hits, both in the first inning. He then pitched three-up-three-down innings over the next four innings allowing the Hawks top open up a 6-0 lead.
The two home-runs in the second inning were complimented with one run in the fourth and three runs in the fifth. The three fifth inning runs were courtesy of a bases loaded double from Litke, giving him four RBI in the game.
Litke led the Hawks offense finishing 2-of-4 with four RBI and scored a run. Ryan Crowley was also 2-of-4 at the plate while Price and Ben Sobocinski (Waldorf, Md./McDonough) provided the other two RBI's. Krajeski finished the game allowing only two hits in seven innings of work and struck out six batters. Adam Flaherty (South Windsor, Conn./East Catholic) and Chris Browne (Massapequa Park, NY/Chaminade) both worked an inning of relief for Hartford.
Hartford now travels to Storrs, Conn. for its next game against the Connecticut Huskies on Tuesday, April 4, 2006. The game is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m.
