West Hartford, CT ? The University of Hartford baseball team picked up its second win in three days with a 6-4 decision over the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Saturday at the Hartford baseball field on campus. The Hawks improve to 3-14 overall and will rematch with the Bobcats on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. in Hamden.
Kyle Perry started the game and pitched three perfect innings, before allowing his first hit in the fourth inning, four overall. In total he allowed one earned run and struck out one batter in the no decision. Weston Szymanski picked up the Hawks victory, seeing an inning and a third of action and allowing just one hit and striking out one. Szymanski improves to 2-2 on the season. Ben Sobocinski picked up his and the teams first save of the season, coming in relief in the seventh inning, with the score 6-4. He allowed only one hit in one and two-third innings and struck out one batter, a key strikeout with the bases juiced in the eighth.
The Hawks bats were led by catcher Chris Hebert, who finished two-of-four with a pair of RBI. In total five players record RBI's in the game with Brady Stouffer, Adam Bowser, Bill Perry and Ryan Crowley all recording one each. The loss goes to Pat Egan, who started and went four complete innings. He allowed two earned runs on three hits while striking out six batters. In total the Bobcats pitching staff struck out 11 Hawk batters.
The Bobcats put the first mark on the board in the fourth inning, when a lead off single from Ryan Ulrich led to a run. Ulrich advanced one base on singles from Tim Binkoski and Randy Gress, before an RBI single from Jeff Mainetti produced the score.
The Hawks took their first and only lead of the game in the bottom half of the inning, when a lead off infield single turned costly, scoring two batters later when Perry smacked a triple to the fence in left center. Perry then scored on the next at bat on an infield groundout for Crowley.
Hartford then added two more runs in the sixth and again in the seventh to pull ahead by five. In both innings, the Hawks lead off batter reach base and eventually led to the first run of the inning. In the sixth, a lead off single up the middle from Sobocinski led to two runs on a double to right center from Hebert, also scoring Erik Price, who walked to reach.
In the seventh Jon Ricco led off the inning by being hit and came around to score on the next at bat, a two strike triple down the right field line from Stouffer. Stouffer then scored on a single to left from Bowser, his second of the game.
Quinnipiac put two more runs up in the top of the eighth inning, both unearned for the Hawks pitching staff. The first runner of the inning was made possible by a fielding error at first base, he would come around to score the first run of the innings on three-straight singles from the Bobcats bats. The second run came courtesy of a sacrifice fly to center field from Wilson Matos, scoring Gress.
The Hawks will travel to Hamden on Sunday to complete a home and home series with the Bobcats. Tomorrow's game is scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m.
