Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

ALBANY, N.Y. - A fly ball was all that was necessary for Matt Walker to drive in the go-ahead run in the Hartford baseball team's first game against Albany on Friday afternoon. With one out and Andy Drexel on third base in the eighth inning, Walker got the fly ball he was looking for. Instead of a sacrifice, though, the junior watched as his second home run of the day soared up and over the center field fence, giving the Hawks a 5-3 lead which they held onto in the first game of the team's season-ending three-game series at Albany. Game Two featured even more heroics for the Hawks, as freshman hurler Anthony Mannuccia pitched the best game of his young career, a four-hit gem as he blanked the Great Danes, 4-0.

Brian Rice, who pitched two innings in relief of Mike Thatcher, earned the victory in the first game of the doubleheader. It was the first conference doubleheader sweep of the season for the Hawks, and ensured them their first conference series win of the year.

The first game was scheduled to go just seven innings, and looked like it would be an easier Hartford win as the Hawks took a 3-1 lead to the bottom of the seventh inning. Bobby Gorski had driven in Mike Aldrich with the game's first run in the second inning. Hartford added another when Walker slammed his first home run of the game - and third of the season in the fourth, and after Albany had answered with a tally in the bottom of the fourth, Rodger Wilmot's single plated Andy Drexel with an insurance run in the sixth.

Unfortunately, sloppy defense from the Hawks led to two unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh, and the game was sent to extra innings. That set up Walker's blast in the top of the eighth, and Rice did not allow a hit in the bottom of the frame as Hartford took the first game, 5-3.

A pitchers' duel was in progress in the second game, as the Hawks managed just one hit their first time through the order, sending the minimum to the dish in the first three innings. Albany did little better against Mannuccia, scratching out two hits but failing to advance a runner beyond second base through three.

In the fourth, Hartford got on the board. Jason Freethey led off with a walk, moving to third when Mike Amendola laced a double down the left field line. Andy Drexel plated Freethey with an RBI groundout, giving the Hawks a 1-0 lead and all the runs they would need to support their freshman pitcher.

Mannuccia cruised from there, allowing just two more hits and only running into trouble in the seventh, with the Hawks already up 4-0. With two outs and no one on, Mannuccia allowed the Great Danes to load the bases thanks to a walk, a single and a hit-by-pitch. However, he induced a grounder to Erik Figueredo at second base that ended the game.

It was the second complete game shutout of the season for the Hawks. Steve Sobocinski pitched the first, a 2-0 win over Sacred Heart on March 26. That day marked the last time the Hawks had swept a doubleheader.

Alex Bulger, getting his fifth start as the catcher, went a perfect 3-for-3 with two RBIs in the second game. He drove in Gorski with an infield single in the fifth, then added another RBI in the seventh when his double plated Gorski. Bulger would come around to score when the next batter, Figueredo, laced a triple to deep left field.

Hartford concludes the series at Albany and its season tomorrow afternoon when the Hawks and Great Danes play a single game at 1 p.m. Hartford will be in search of its first conference series sweep since a four-game sweep of UMBC in Baltimore on April 6-8, 2007.