West Hartford, CT ? The University of Hartford baseball team dropped a doubleheader to the Maine Black Bears on Monday, falling 13-1 in game one and 14-3 in the afternoon's second game. The Black Bears, behind a strong pitching performance from Pat Quinn in the first game and a solid outing on the mound from Matt Jebb in the nightcap, took three out of the four-game series with the Hartford Hawks. Quinn pitched a complete game, allowing one run on four hits, for his fourth win of the season (4-0). Jebb saw eight innings of action, giving up three runs on 10 hits and striking out three to improve to 5-1 on the season.
The Black Bears took their first lead of the day in the second inning of game one, putting a single notch in the scoreboard. Ian Leisenheimer, the leadoff batter in the second inning, smacked the first of four doubles in the seven inning game for Maine. He advanced to third on a single to center field from Kyle Stilphen and scored on an infield groundout from Jarrett Lukas.
Maine added three more runs in the third and five additional runs in the fourth to take a 9-0 lead. Three-straight hits, two of which were doubles, with one out in the third led to the first two runs as Billy Cather knocked in two on a double down the right field line. In the fourth, Danny Menendez and Justin Leisenheimer, provided the hits that knocked in the four runs, with each recording two RBI. Kyle Stilphen was responsible for the final run of the inning scoring as Justin Leisenheimer scored while Stilphen was in a rundown on a steal attempt.
The Black Bears padded their lead with four more runs in the fifth, all coming with two outs in the inning. Jarrett Lukas led off the inning with a walk and then took second on a one-out single up the middle from Tony Patane. After Joey Martin struck out for the second out of the inning, Menendez knocked in Lukas, before a fielding error in right field led to two runs. The final run scored on an infield single from Ian Leisenheimer.
Hartford's only run came in the seventh inning, breaking the shutout for Quinn. Andrew Siano began the offense with a one-out walk and a two-out single from Drew Sgro put runners at the corner. Siano was able to score as the Black Bears were unable to turn a double play to end the game.
In the second game, the Black Bears put the first notch on the scoreboard in the opening game to take an early lead over the Hawks. After retiring lead-off hitter Martin, Hartford starter Govoni walked Menendez. The second baseman stole second, allowing a two-out RBI single off the bat of Ian Leisenheimer to drive him in for Maine's first run of the game.
The Hawks responded in the bottom of the second, knocking in a pair of runs off two hits to take a 2-1 advantage, their only lead of the game over the Black Bears. Three-straight singles off the bats of the Hawks' lead-off hitters ? Stouffer, Kudernatsch and Amendola ? loaded the bases with no outs. Back-to-back sacrifice flies by Andrew Drexel and Ben Sobocinski plated Stouffer and Kudernatsch to give the Hawks the lead.
Maine answered back with two more runs in the second and four runs in the third to take a 9-2 lead over the Hawks. The Black Bears used two hits to cross a pair of runs in their second at-bats. Stilphen drew a walk off of Govoni with one out, and Maine completed the damage with two outs on an RBI double off the bat of Patane to plate Stilphen. Patane then scored on a hard hit single to centerfield by Martin.
The Black Bears' four-run rally in the third inning was fueled by three consecutive singles by Ian Leisenheimer, Lugbauer and Justin Leisenheimer to load the bases with just one out. A single by Stilphen knocked in the first two runs of the inning. Following a Hartford pitching change replacing Govoni with Steve Sobocinski, Maine scored two more runs on a sacrifice fly by Lukas and an RBI double to left centerfield by Patane, plating Justin Leisenheimer and Stilphen.
Maine added two more runs in the fourth, making the score 9-2. The two teams then swapped runs in the sixth inning. Lugbauer walked with one out in the inning, and scored when Justin Leisenheimer fired out a double, his second hit of the game, to bump the score to 10-2. The Hawks got back the run in the bottom of the frame when Drexel walked and scored on a ground-out by Rodger Wilmot.
Back-to-back 1,2,3 innings by Jebb led the Black Bears into the top of the ninth with a comfortable 10-2 lead. Maine plated four more runs in its final at-bats to boost the score to the eventual 14-3 final. With the win, Maine improves to 20-13 (3-1 AE) on the season while Hartford falls to 6-18 with a 1-3 record in the conference.
Matt Govoni pitched 2.1 innings, giving up seven runs ? all earned ? on seven hits, dropping his overall record to 1-2 on the season. Sobocinski took over on the mound pitching 6.2 innings. The sophomore gave up seven runs, four of which were earned, while striking out one batter. Four Hawks recorded multiple-hit games, with Stouffer and Kudernatsch leading the offense each finishing 2-for-4 and scoring a run.
The Hawks will travel to Storrs, CT on Tuesday, April 14 for a match-up with in-state rival Connecticut. First pitch is scheduled to be thrown at 3:00 p.m.
