West Hartford, CT ? The University of Hartford baseball team dropped a mid-week game to in-state rival Connecticut 3-1 on Tuesday afternoon at the Hartford Baseball Field. The Hawks fall to 3-16 overall, while the Huskies improve to 12-13 overall. The two teams will meet again on April 17, to complete a home-and-home series.
Hartford's pitching saw six guys give an inning, with started Ben Sobocinski going the longest of all Hawks pitchers, three innings. Sobocinkski finished not allowing a hit in his first start of the season. Zach Stefka suffered his first loss of the season (0-1), giving up a single run in the fifth inning, after allowing a lead off single to start the inning.
Connecticut's starter, Rob Van Woert picked up his fourth win of the season (4-1) after pitching seven complete innings. He allowed just one hit in that span, while striking out four batters. Van Woert pitched four perfect innings. Will Musson came in relief to start the eighth inning and worked eight total batters, allowing one unearned run on one hit for the Hawks. Musson earned his first save of the season in his two innings of work.
The Hawks bats were led by Adam Bowser who finished 1-of-4 at the plate with the only RBI of the game for Hartford. Brady Stouffer had the only other Hawk hit in the game, both going for singles. The Huskies finished with six total hits, all coming from different players.
The Huskies struck first in the fifth inning, after both teams starting pitchers were hot. The Hawks starter, Sobocinski finished with a perfect record, forcing four ground outs, four fly outs and struck out one. Hartford had its first runner in the third inning, when David Grossman walked. He had the chance to score two batters later but a diving catch from right fielder Josh Frakes to end the inning.
UConn's first run came following a lead off single through the left side for clean-up hitter Dennis Donovan. He advanced to second on a wild pitch then scored three batters later on a throwing error from Hawks short stop Stouffer. The Huskies had the chance to score again in the sixth, with runners on the corners, but senior Adam Flaherty forced Donavan into an infield groundout to end the inning.
Marc Toomey and Bryan Bloch weren't able to keep UConn from scoring single runs in the seventh and eighth. A lead off double for Matt Karl led to a run on a Hawks fielding error. Bloch then allowed a lead off home run to left field from Pat Mahoney to put the Huskies ahead 3-0.
Hartford then put its first mark on the board in the bottom half of the eighth when a lead off walk for Grossman led to a run when he scored on a single to right from Adam Bowser. UConn threatened to take the run back in the top of the ninth when Larry Day smacked a lead off double off the left field fence. He was left stranded with a pair of fly outs and a ground out to end the inning.
The Hawks will open up conference play this weekend when they travel to Baltimore, MD, one of three conference trips of the season. Hartford and UMBC will play a four-game series with a single game on Friday, a double header on Saturday and a single game on Sunday. The series is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
