BOX SCORE

LIVE STATS FOR WEDNESDAY AT DARTMOUTH

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - Victor Santana seemed to provide a good omen for the Hartford baseball team as he led off the Hartford offensive attack with a first-inning home run on Tuesday afternoon, but the Hawks could not hold onto a 3-0 lead as they fell to Iona, 16-6. Ryan Lukach started and took the loss for Hartford, which dropped its fourth consecutive game. Brian Estevez had two hits and two runs batted in.

Lukach allowed just a two-out single in the first inning, which would prove to be the least productive frame for the visiting Gaels (13-24). When the Hawks came up in the bottom half of the inning, Santana, filling the designated hitter role, got things started with a blast to the opposite field that cleared the fence just to the right of the 370 sign, giving Hartford a quick 1-0 lead.

The Hawks expanded their cushion in the second inning. Mike Aldrich led things off by beating out an infield single to the right of shortstop Matthew Kriss. He moved to second when Iona starter Matt Marley's pickoff attempt sailed wide of first base. Brendan Behm then hit a roller to short, which Kriss fielded and threw towards third trying to nail Aldrich. However, the throw hit Aldrich in the back, leaving him safe at third and allowing Behm to move around to second base. After Marley got the first out of the inning, Estevez came through with a line drive single to left-center that plated both runners.

Hartford held a 3-0 lead heading into the third inning, but the Hawks would allow at least one run in every inning the rest of the way. Iona got on the board with four in the third, powered by two home runs as they would drive Lukach from the game following that inning and take a lead that they would never relinquish.

The Hawks were done in by the big inning, as the Gaels tacked on six runs in the sixth inning to pull away from Hartford after tacking on single runs in the fourth and fifth.

After a furstrating weekend at the plate in which the Hawks were swept in three games at Binghamton despite giving up a combined nine runs, Hartford broke out a bit on Tuesday, scoring six runs on 11 hits. In stark contrast to the weekend when the Hawks struggled just to get runners on base, Hartford had only one three up, three down inning on Tuesday, the fifth inning. The Hawks left seven runners on base, however, as they still struggled to get clutch hits.

The Hawks will get right back to work on Wednesday, visiting Dartmouth for a 3:00 p.m. game against the Big Green. Hartford was scheduled to visit Dartmouth last week, but rain pushed that contest to Wednesday.