West Hartford, CT ? The University of Hartford baseball team dropped both games of Saturday's doubleheader against the second place Binghamton Bearcats at the Hartford Baseball Field. Hartford falls to 16-28 overall and 8-10 in conference play, while Binghamton improves to 24-23 overall and 12-6 in America East action.
Hartford struck first in the opening game with a single run in the fourth inning. Bill Perry began the inning with a lead off single to center field, he was advanced on a successful sacrifice bunt by Matt Walker. Andy Drexel drove in the run with a single in the right field gap.
Binghamton broke open the game with a four run sixth inning, all coming by way of four hits, two of which were doubles. The Bearcats started things off with the first three reaching base. The first two runs came by way of a double to right center from Corey Taylor. The second two runs also came by way of a double, this time to left field from Joe Charron, knocking the Hawks starting pitcher Weston Szymanski out of the game.
Szymanski suffered his fifth loss of the season (3-5 overall). He allowed four earned runs on five hits in 5.1 innings of work. He also recorded two strikeouts and walked one batter. CJ Browne, Matt Govoni and Steve Sobocinski all saw an inning or more of relief. Browne pitched 1.2 innings and allowed four earned runs on six hits. Govoni pitched one inning and did not allow a hit, while Sobocinski also pitched one inning and gave up one hit.
Binghamton added three more runs in the seventh inning and a final run in the eighth inning. In the seventh, Jacobi and Jeff Skelhorne-Gross opened the inning with singles and advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. Peter Bregartner knocked in the first run with a single to center. Ryan James then knocked in the second run on a single to left with the final run scoring on a sacrifice fly from Kyle Klee.
The Bearcats final run began with an infield single from Brian Ivan. An error allowed him to reach second and a single to short loaded the bases with no outs. The run scored on a sacrifice fly from Taylor, before the Hawks forced a double play to get out of the inning.
Hartford's ninth inning rally garnered just one run. Simon Kudernatsch led off the inning with an infield single and advanced to third on a double to right center from Adam Grap. Kudernatsch was knocked home on a sacrifice fly to center from Adam Bowser.
In the nightcap, Chris Greiner pitched a no-hitter through the first five innings, before he was relieved by Kyle Perry to start the sixth inning. Greiner gave up four walks but struck out five batters in his five innings of work. Binghamton broke up the no-hitter with the only hit that mattered, a two out three run home run in the top of the seventh inning.
Perry suffered the loss for Hartford, 2-2 overall. He gave up two total hits and all three runs. He also allowed one walk and hit one batter, while striking out one. Jeff Dennis picked up his fourth win of the season (4-4 overall), while Greg Lane earned his 10th save of the season, pitching the final inning.
The teams will close out the series with a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon beginning at 12:00 p.m. They will begin with a seven inning game and follow that up with a nine inning game. Hartford's projected starters are Pete Moraksi in the first game and Zach Tarner in the nightcap.
