Ryan Lukach
Steve McLaughlin

Baseball Hartford Sports Information

Lukach Drives in Two, but Hawks Drop 4-3 Decision at Army

Box Score

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Hartford baseball team dropped their only mid-week tune-up 4-3 at Army on Thursday before heading back to conference action at Binghamton this weekend. The Hawks, who  fell to 14-28 overall in 2013, were led by right fielder Ryan Lukach who drove in two of the Hawks three runs.

Hartford finished with seven total hits with first baseman Brady Sheetz the only player to finish with a multi-hit outing going 2-of-5 at the plate. Lukach finished with one of the remaining hits in four appearances at the plate while centerfielder Chris DelDebbio matched that performance while driving in the only other Hawks run.

On the hill, freshman Sam McKay suffered the decision as he gave up four runs, three earned, on five hits. Tyler Corsi and Jacob Mellin both pitched a pair of scoreless innings of relief work while Alex Gouin closed out the game with a scoreless appearance facing four batters total. The Hawks pitchers gave up nine total hits to Army, who was led by centerfielder Jacob Page who finished 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI.

The Hawks would need to work from behind all afternoon as the Black Knights scored all four of runs in the first two innings with three in the first and what turned out to be the game-winning run in the second inning. Both of Page's RBI came in the opening inning as he drove in the second and third runs of the stanza while short stop Alex Jensen drove in the first run of the game.

In the second inning, the Black Knights lone run came courtesy of the only miscue in the game, a throwing error on a steal attempt. A sacrifice fly from third baseman Harold Earls allowed the run to score.

The Hawks scored their three runs in the third inning sending nine batters to the plate. After the first batter in the inning struck out swinging, the next five Hawks reached safely on a walk and four singles. Trey Stover became the first runner of the inning working a walk and eventually became the first run of the inning. Brian Estevez and Sheetz followed that with singles to load the bases, Estevez's a bunt single that he was able to beat out. Lukach came to the plate with three runners aboard and drove in the first two runs on a single through the right side, followed by DelDebbio who was also able to beat out a bunt earning a hit and an RBI as he drove in Sheetz.

 The Hawks close out a series of seven-straight road games this weekend as they are scheduled to play three against the Binghamton Bearcats at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, N.Y. The Hawks and Bearcats will open the series with a Saturday afternoon doubleheader with the first game scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. The series finale on Sunday is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch. In the first half of the home-and-home series against Binghamton, the Hawks dropped both ends of the Saturday doubleheader before winning the final game by a 4-3 margin. 

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