THE FIRST PITCH
Hartford advances to the America East Tournament for the third time in as many years, finishing second in the league for the third time in school history. The Hawks earned a first-round bye thanks to garnering the No. 2 seed, and will play their first game of the event on Thursday, May 26, at 3:30 p.m.

WARMING UP
• The Hawks have registered a school-record 36 wins, breaking the 2014 team's mark of 31-27. Hartford's senior class has amassed more wins (107) than any four-year seniors in program history.

• Ten different Hawks were honored by the America East, led by Conference Player of the Year David MacKinnon. Three others were named to the First Team, four players were named to the Second Team, two to the All-Rookie Team and four on the All-Academic Team.

• Hartford's offense has been tremendous all season, obliterating the school record for runs (364) and setting new program marks for hits (528), triples (20) and total bases (755).

• MacKinnon has been the main catalyst, breaking his own single-season record with 80 hits this season and placing in the conference's top five in batting average (1st, .390), slugging (5th, .537), on-base percentage (2nd, .467), runs (T-1st, 54), hits (1st, 80), doubles (3rd, 15) and total bases (1st, 110).

• The junior is far from the only offensive contributor, as six regulars are hitting .309 or better on the year, and two hitters not in that subset (Chris DelDebbio and Ashton Bardzell) have hit at least five home runs.

• The senior duo of Kyle Gauthier (5-2, 2.82) and Brian Murphy (7-2, 3.78) have anchored the league's top pitching staff (4.29 ERA). The X-factor for the Hawks could be redshirt sophomore David Drouin (3-2, 2.29), who logged his first inning on the mound on Saturday after missing six weeks with an injury.

• Ben Bengtson and T.J. Ward have done a tremendous job on the left side of the Hawks' infield, as the sophomores both have a .956 fielding percentage with strong range. Bengtson led the America East in RBI (50) and was fifth in home runs (6), while Ward finished ninth in the league in hitting (.321).
 

CONFERENCE ACCOLADES
The Hawks cleaned up at the America East Awards Banquet, with David MacKinnon being named the Player of the Year and nine others collecting conference awards.

• MacKinnon became the first player since Jeff Bagwell (1988 and 1989, ECAC) to win conference Player of the Year honors.

• Three others – senior outfielder Chris DelDebbio, sophomore shortstop Ben Bengtson and sophomore third baseman T.J. Ward – earned First Team recognition. From 1991-2015, only 10 Hawks earned that honor.

• The Hawks also added four Second Team honorees – senior pitchers Kyle Gauthier and Brian Murphy, senior second baseman Aaron Wilson and sophomore designated hitter Erik Ostberg.

• Freshmen outfielders Ashton Bardzell and Chris Sullivan were named to the conference's All-Rookie Team, the sixth-straight season that a Hawk has earned that recognition.

• MacKinnon, Gauthier, Ward and Ostberg were named to the All-Academic Team, marking the fifth-straight year that at least three Hawks have been so recognized.

• Only conference champion Binghamton had more first team (5) and overall all-conference selections (9) than the Hawks.

• MacKinnon was honored for the third-consecutive year on the all-conference teams, the first player in Hawks history to earn that distinction from the America East.

MACK ATTACK
En route to collecting America East Player of the Year honors, David MacKinnon produced a bevy of accomplishments:

• Set a new school record and led the America East with 80 hits, besting his previous school record of 68.

• Reached base in 49 of 52 games, including a streak of 42 contests in a row that was snapped in the season finale at UMBC.

• A conference-best .390 batting average, which ranks him 23rd in the nation.

• A school-record 54 runs (tied with Aaron Wilson) that rank him 51st in the nation.

• Ranked in the league's top-10 in slugging (.537, 5th), on-base percentage (.467, 2nd), runs (54, 1st), doubles (15, 3rd) and triples (3, 8th)

SENIOR SALUTE
The Hawks' senior class of Aaron Wilson, Chris DelDebbio, Joe Roberti, Sam McKay, Brian Murphy, Billy Walker, Jacob Mellin, Justin Robarge and Kyle Gauthier is the winningest group in Hawks history, collecting 107 wins in their four years for Hartford. 

• The group are the nine remaining members of Justin Blood's first recruiting class

• Chris DelDebbio has played in 204 games in his career, second in Hawks lore

• Gauthier is just 8.1 innings shy of setting a new record for Hartford pitchers