PHOTO GALLERY

THE BASICS:

RESULT: Hartford 11, Maine 4
LOCATION: West Hartford, Conn. (Fiondella Field)
RECORDS: Hartford (25-12, 8-7 America East); Maine (11-26, 2-9)
WP: McKay (3-2); LP: Silva (2-2); S: LaRossa (2)

THE LEAD:
Ben Bengtson went 2-for-4 with three RBI to lead the Hartford baseball team to an 11-4 win over Maine on Sunday, earning a weekend sweep of the Black Bears. Hartford banged out 12 hits in the game, as David MacKinnon and Erik Ostberg also had two-hit days and T.J. Ward collected his second home run of the season.
 
Sam McKay picked up the win for Hartford, allowing three runs in five innings of work, while John Mormile and John LaRossa each tossed two scoreless innings out of the pen. Nick Silva was credited with the loss for the Black Bears after giving up three runs in two innings of work.
 
Brenden Geary had a 3-for-4 day for the Black Bears, while Aaron Wilson, MacKinnon, Ostberg and Bengtson scored two runs apiece for Hartford. All nine starters hit safely in the contest, as the Hawks registered the fourth 25-win season in program history.

HOW THEY SCORED:
• Maine got on the board with a double play that netted a run in the top of the first.
• Hartford didn't let that lead remain for long as singles by Wilson and MacKinnon put runners at the corners and a sac fly by Ostberg tied things up in the bottom of the frame.
• In the bottom of the fourth, the Hawks put a crooked number on the board, the first on a solo home run by Ward that went into the netting in left field.
• Ashton Bardzell manufactured a run on his own to follow, drawing a walk, stealing second and coming around to score on a pair of wild pitches to make it 3-1.
• Maine answered in the top of the fifth, scoring one run on a wild pitch and a second on a suicide squeeze to knot the game up at 3-3.
• Hartford had an answer of its own in the bottom of the fifth, plating two runs on groundouts to gain a 5-3 advantage.
• The Hawks used a walk and three straight singles, the last by Ostberg, to push the lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the sixth.
• In the seventh, Bengtson led off with a double into the left-field corner, then two batters later came around on Bardzell's RBI single up the middle, to give the Hawks a 7-3 advantage.
• The Black Bears got a run back in the top of the eighth on a wild pitch to trim it to 7-4.
• Hartford broke the game open with a four-spot in the bottom of the eighth, the first on a sac fly by Chris Sullivan that made it 8-4.
• Bengtson came through with the big blow, plating two runs with a triple to left center, then scoring when the relay throw to third went out of play, for an 11-4 lead.

UP NEXT:
Hartford will return to non-conference play for a matchup at Quinnipiac on the road on Tuesday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Hamden, Conn., as the Hawks look to avenge a 7-5 defeat to the Bobcats, Hartford's only midweek loss of the season.