AMHERST, Mass. – In mid-week out-of-league action, the University of Hartford softball team dropped a single game to the Massachusetts Minutemen on Thursday, falling 8-0 in six innings at Sortino Field in Amherst. Hartford (15-24) will look to rebound this weekend when it returns to America East action against Binghamton for a three-game set, starting with a doubleheader on Saturday (1 p.m.).

UMass' Caroline Raymond extended her win-streak inside of the circle to seven games, conceding just five hits to the Hawks while striking out two and walking four for the shutout. Erica Phelps paced the offense for Hartford, going 2-for-2 while Amber Andrews, Jenice Aloyo and Sawyer Fried each finished with one hit apiece. Brittany Beebe, a sophomore, took the loss for the Hawks.

The Hawks had a chance to jump out to an early lead in their first at-bats, but were unable to capitalize with the bases loaded. With one out, Aloyo hit an infield single, and following a walk from Kate Wacyk, Raymond issued another four-ball count to Fried to occupy each of the base paths. Raymond and the UMass defense got out of the jam, however, as Chelsey Mooney fouled out, ending the frame without any damage being done to the scoreboard.

In the top of the fifth, Hartford threatened again, loading up the bases on a lead-off single from Andrews and a pair of walks from Wacyk and Fried with one and two outs, respectively. None of those runs would be plated, though, as the Minutemen retired Mooney for the final out of the inning to preserve the shutout.

UMass plated a single run in the bottom of the second as Teea Rogers singled through the left side and drove home Christine Della Vecchi from third with one out. The Minutemen would go on to add seven runs in the bottom of the fourth with Lindsey Webster and Rogers recording RBI doubles to score the first two runs of the frame. After Quianna Diaz-Patters singled home Rogers from second, Katie Bettencourt reached on an error and Tiffany Meeks rounded-out the scoring for the contest, hitting a two-out, three-run homer to put UMass ahead, 8-0.