WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Playing its final home games of the 2013 regular season on Tuesday, the University of Hartford softball team saw a pair of comeback bids go unfinished as the Sacred Heart Pioneers snagged 7-6 and 5-4 wins in the showdown between two Nutmeg State teams. The Hawks, who play their final nine games on the road, dip to 16-28 while Sacred Heart improves its overall mark to 22-22

In the circle, sophomore Ana Alberti came out of the bullpen in relief in both outings, combining to throw 6.1 innings in her pitching debut this season. During that span, she scattered just two hits while conceding just one walk and one earned run to the Pioneers.

In the opening game, Hartford manufactured six runs on 10 hits, but fell one tally short of wiping clean a 6-1 deficit as Sacred Heart held on for the 7-6 victory. Both teams combined to belt out nine extra base hits, with senior Kate Wacyk pacing the Hawks' bats with one double and a triple.

For the Pioneers, Annie Dreher and Adrianna Mallory were also red-hot, recording a double and a home run apiece. Mallory, Sacred Heart's starting pitcher, not only drove in five runs but also earned the win inside of the circle after throwing a complete game and striking out five. Mallory's offensive explosion continued into game two where she added two more RBI and scored once to her count on the afternoon.

The Hawks and Pioneers traded one run apiece to open the day with a double off the bat of third baseman Jackie Kelly putting the home team on the board in the bottom half of the first. In the next two innings, Sacred Heart blew that tie open, combining to plate five runs during that span to take a commanding 6-1 advantage.

Mallory started that stretch with a one-out, two-run homer before Courtney Machamer earned a bases loaded walk with two outs to start the scoring in the third. Machamer earned the free RBI by pushing Jenn Robillard who was struck by a pitch out of the right hand of Hawk pitcher Zuzana Kudernatschova.

Mallory provided her squad with the five-run lead, lining a two-bagger into right center field to score Justine Sibthorp and Dreher.

The home team got their bats going and rallied back from five down to cut their deficit to a pair of runs at 6-4. Three-straight hits with just one out recorded in the third granted the Hawks with a pair of tallies before Maggie Betz reached base on an error and scored on an infield ground out in the home half of the fourth.

Extending her hit streak to six games, a season-best for any Hartford batter this season, Jenice Aloyo tripled to right field to lead off the bottom of the third and went on to score on an error on the ensuing cutoff throw. Wacyk then made it back-to-back triples for Hartford, sending a ball into right center field before another hit to right field, this one from Kelly, brought the Hawks' shortstop across home for the second time in the contest for her team's third run of the afternoon.

After Betz moved along the paths and scored on a passed ball, wild pitch and an Erica Phelps groundout in the fourth, Sacred Heart re-extended its lead to three at 7-4 using a bases loaded fielder's choice in the top of the fifth from Mallory to scratch Noelle Cahill, Wendi Westmark's pinch runner, across home.

That was the only blemish of the day on the stat sheet for sophomore Ana Alberti, who came out of the bullpen in relief for Kudernatschova to work four innings. Her first appearance of the season featured one strikeout, one walk and one hit.

That Sacred Heart run in the fifth proved to be the final blow in the game as the Hawks closed the gap to a single run in the bottom of the sixth but would fall one score short of completing the comeback bid.

After Chelsey Mooney singled to lead things off, Betz made it runners on second and third as her two-bagger shifted Peyton Fisher, a pinch runner, over to the hot corner. Phelps recorded the first RBI of the frame, sacrificing her at-bat to plate Fisher while Wacyk made it a one-run affair with a two-out RBI double to right field.

After driving in five runs for her squad, including the eventual game-winner, Mallory closed out the game strong, earning the win for the Pioneers by retiring the middle of the Hawks' lineup in order in their final at-bats.

In the nightcap, the Hawks again mustered up a late rally, this time taking a four run deficit down to a single run in their final at-bats. Three runs would be produced on two hits and a pair of Sacred Heart errors, however Hartford was unable to capitalize with no outs and the bases loaded as it fell one tally short of its in-state rival.

Mooney's first hit of the game, a single up the middle of the infield, manufactured the first run of the spurt as the Hawks' designated player would score following a single from Melani Maxwell and a fielding error in Betz's at-bat.

A walk by Fisher loaded the bases of for Phelps, who would then earn an RBI and cut Hartford's deficit to two on a fielder's choice that saw Maxwell beat out the throw at the plate to make it a 5-3 game. The Hawks continued to rattle Sacred Heart pitcher Kacie Wentworth as she drilled Andrews with a pitch in the next at-bat to push Betz across home and put the Hawks within one run of the Pioneers.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, they would not be able to scratch the game-tying run across the scoreboard. Sacred Heart's defense buckled down to end the game, turning a ground ball off the bat of Aloyo into a 1-2-3 double play before inducing Wacyk into a groundout for the final out of the contest.  

Andrews provided Hartford with an early 1-0 advantage in game two, belting out a double to right field before scoring two batters later on a base hit from Wacyk. Following a solo shot from Sibthorp in the top of the second, Sacred Heart blew the game open, driving out Hartford starter Brittany Beebe by pouring in four runs in the top of the fifth.

The Hawks return to the diamond tomorrow when they head to Boston College for a single game at 4 p.m.