GAME ONE BOX SCORE
GAME TWO BOX SCORE
BALTIMORE – The bats broke out for the Hartford baseball team in the second game of a doubleheader at UMBC on Friday afternoon, as the Hawks hit nine doubles and Matt Walker added a three-run home run to defeat the Retrievers, 16-3. Hartford's 16 runs marked a season high for the Hawks. Walker's home run was his second of the day, after he provided the lone run in a 5-1 loss in the first game of the twin bill.
Tyler Corsi started the second game, going seven strong innings and earning the victory for the Hawks (5-42-1, 2-19). John Cohn took the loss. In the first game, Mike Mitchell got the victory for UMBC (9-36, 1-19), while Hunter Englehart was tagged with the loss despite five strong innings of work.
Walker drove the first pitch he saw in the first inning of Game One up and over the 20-foot high fence at Baseball Factory Field, his third home run of the season. That would be it for Hartford offensively, however, as Mitchell settled down and gave up just three more hits the rest of the way. The Retrievers scored twice in the fourth on Brian Klukowicz's first home run of the season, then added three more runs in the sixth inning to put away the 5-1 victory.
After the Hawks spotted UMBC a 1-0 lead in Game Two, Hartford finally got some big hits in the third inning. Ryan Lukach got it started with a one-out double off the wall in deep center field. The relay throw came into shortstop Rich Conlon, who couldn't handle it, allowing Lukach to move up to third. Simon Kudernatsch brought him home with a sacrifice fly to the warning track in center.
With two outs and no one on, Walker got another rally started when he singled through the hole in the left side of the infield. Chris Suchy then smoked a drive high off the wall. Walker rumbled all the way around to score from first as Suchy pulled into second with a double. He scored moments later when Mike Aldrich went the other way to single through the right side. It was the first of four runs batted in for Aldrich during the game.
The Hawks broke the game wide open in the fourth inning, scoring five times to make it 8-1. Jason Freethey led off with a double to left field, a soaring fly ball that scraped the top of the wall, just missing a home run by less than a foot. Brian Estevez moved him to third with a sacrifice bunt, and Lukach put down another bunt as interim head coach Jerry Shank put on the squeeze play. The throw came to the plate, where Freethey slid underneath the tag with the fourth run. Lukach was safe at first.
Kudernatsch singled and Suchy was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Aldrich. This time, the senior from Groton poked the Steve Miller offering out to the right-center field gap, just out of the reach of right fielder Rob McCabe. All three runs scored, and Aldrich trotted into second with a double.
He would score moments later when Rodger Wilmot joined the doubles parade, ripping a hard grounder down the left field line and all the way into the corner.
In the fifth, the Retrievers got two outs before Hartford got their bats going. Lukach was hit by a pitch, and Kudernatsch followed with a nice at bat, working the count full before drawing a walk. Up stepped Walker, who sent the second pitch he saw into orbit, nearly clearing the trees beyond the left-center field fence. His fourth home run of the year made it 11-1 Hawks.
The Hawks would add four more in the eighth and one in the ninth. The 16 runs marked the team's best output of the season, outdoing a 14-run effort at Yale and a 12-run victory against NJIT.
Hartford and UMBC will wrap up their seasons on Saturday, as the two teams play a doubleheader getting underway at noon.
