Box Score

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - Junior Bobby Gorski has developed into a reliable option out of the bullpen for Jeff Calcaterra and the Hartford baseball team, a fact he displayed on Monday as he pitched out of an seventh-inning jam to earn his first victory, 7-5 over Albany. That victory would never have come, though, if he had not displayed the clutch power hitting that has made him one of Hartford's best hitters this season, as his two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth gave the Hawks (7-20, 2-5) their margin of victory and helped them salvage the third game of a three-game set with the Great Danes (4-24, 3-3).

Brian Gauthier took the loss for Albany, dropping his record to 0-3.

Hartford got on the board first in the second inning, snapping a 17-inning scoreless drought. Junior Matt Walker led the frame off with a sharp single back up the middle. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by junior Rodger Wilmot, the first of four sac bunts Hartford displayed on the day. With two outs, it was Gorski who came through in the clutch, looping a single down the left field line to plate Walker and give Hartford a 1-0 lead.

Albany responded with two runs in the top of the third, but the Hawks tied it in the fourth inning. Mike Aldrich led off with a single to center, and this time it was Walker whose well-placed bunt advanced the runner ninety feet. With two outs, freshman Erik Figueredo laced a slicing line drive towards right fielder Pete DiResta. The ball forced DiResta to hustle far to his right, but he got there in time to have the liner pop in and out of his glove. Figueredo pulled into second base on the error, and Aldrich tied the score.

In the fifth, after the Great Danes had added a run in the top of the inning, Hartford took a 4-3 lead when Mike Amendola launched a rocket to left-center field for his fourth home run. The shot cleared the scoreboard and the netting hovering to the left of the 370-foot marker, and plated sophomore Cory Beahm, who had walked to lead the inning off.

Albany took a 5-4 lead in the seventh thanks to a home run from second baseman Brian Bullard. In the eighth, Gauthier replaced starter Zach Kraham, who promptly allowed a single through the hole between first and second base to Aldrich. After Walker successfully executed his second sac bunt of the day, senior Jon Ricco pinch ran for Aldrich at second base. He scored moments later when Wilmot ripped a double to the gap in left-center field that short-hopped the fence.

After Figueredo lined out on a ball similar to the one he had hit in the fourth inning, up stepped Gorski. With the go-ahead run at second base, Gorski was not content to give Hartford a one-run lead. He went with the Gauthier pitch, sending it sailing to right-center. Adam Cutspec, who had been brought in to play right, raced back to the fence only to see it sail over the net and bounce across the parking lot, Gorski's first home run of the season.

Junior Chris Greiner came on to close things out in the ninth. With two outs and runners on first and second, Greiner got pinch-hitter Mike Tirri to ground weakly to Figueredo at second for the final out. Hartford was back in the win column.

The Hawks will be back in action on Tuesday, as they welcome in-state rival Quinnipiac to Fiondella Field for an out-of-conference matchup. The Hawks and Bobcats will get underway at 3 p.m.