THE BASICS:

RESULT: Hartford 7, Rhode Island 1
LOCATION: Bill Beck Field (Kingston, R.I.)
RECORDS: Hartford (35-14), URI (24-25)
WP: DiMauro (2-1); LP: Blanchard (0-3)

THE LEAD:
The Hartford baseball team finished off its non-conference schedule with a victory, topping Rhode Island 7-1 on Wednesday. The Hawks enter the final weekend of the regular season with a school-record 35 wins and having won 14 of the last 16 contests.
 
David MacKinnon went 2-for-4 and scored a pair of runs, while Ben Bengtson went 1-for-3 with three RBI in the victory. T.J. Ward added a three-hit day as well, going 3-for-5 for the Hawks. Martin Figueroa and Sam Ilario each had two hits in a losing effort for the Rams.
 
Five Hawks combined for a strong outing on the mound, with Billy DeVito tossing three shutout innings in his first career start, while Seth Pinkerton added three shutout frames as well in the victory. Jason Blanchard was carded with the loss for Rhode Island.
 
HOW THEY SCORED:
• Both pitchers started strong, with the Hawks striking first in the top of the third. MacKinnon walked to lead off the inning, then advanced when Chris DelDebbio was hit by a pitch. After a groundout, Bengtson delivered a sacrifice fly to center field to make it 1-0.
• The Hawks then delivered a huge blow, putting a six spot on the board in the top of the fourth, all with two outs. A Dalton Ruch double was sandwiched by a pair of outs, and then Ashton Bardzell walked to put two on for MacKinnon, and the junior brought home Ruch on a single up the middle to make it 2-0.
• DelDebbio followed, and roped a double down the left-field line, scoring MacKinnon and Bardzell for a 4-0 lead and his third-straight multi-RBI game.
• Bengtson then ripped a double to the gap in left center, plating DelDebbio and Erik Ostberg (who had walked), for a 6-0 Hartford lead.
• Ward finished off the scoring in the frame by sending a single through the left side to score Bengtson and make it 7-0.
• Meanwhile, on the mound, the Hawks got three strong innings from DeVito to start, and Sebastian DiMauro followed with a pair of frames. He gave up the first run of the game in the fifth on a bases-loaded walk to make it 7-1.
• Seth Pinkerton came on for DiMauro in the sixth and went on to toss a pair of shutout innings, while Kevin Tise pitched a scoreless eighth and Collin Ferguson finished it off by striking out the side in the ninth.

UP NEXT:
The Hawks take to the road to close out the regular season for a three-game series at UMBC. Hartford will face the Retrievers for a doubleheader on Friday at noon with the final game slated for noon on Saturday. The Hawks can clinch the No. 2 seed in next week's America East Tournament by winning at least two games from UMBC.