THE BASICS:
 
RESULT:  Hartford 9, Sacred Heart 8
LOCATION: Fiondella Field (West Hartford, Conn.)
RECORDS:  Hartford (6-14, 1-2 America East), Sacred Heart (7-18, 2-1 NEC)
W: Alex Moconyi (1-0) L: Ethan Lonardelli (0-1)
 

THE LEAD: 
The University of Hartford baseball team has been looking for answers on pitching mound early this season. The Hawks found one on Tuesday.
 
Freshman right-hander Alex Moconyi came out of Hartford's bullpen with the Hawks deadlocked at 8-8 with the Pioneers in the fourth inning. When he finished up, 4.1 scoreless innings later, Moconyi had earned his first career win — along with his first eight career strikeouts as the Hawks outlasted Sacred Heart, 9-8.
 
The Hawks made a winner out of Moconyi when left fielder Chris Sullivan and center fielder Ashton Bardzell executed a picture-perfect suicide squeeze. Bardzell walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice by senior captain TJ Ward and was awarded third base on an interference call against Sacred Heart. With one out, Sullivan dropped a bunt down the third base line as Bardzell charged home with the game-winning run.
 
Junior catcher Erik Ostberg, who entered the game carrying a .485 average, managed to improve his standing as the nation's leading hitter, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored and four RBI. Sullivan and first baseman David MacKinnon also had two hits in the game.
 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Sacred Heart opened things up with three runs on four hits in the top of the first inning. Junior P.J. DeFilippo drove in two with a double through the right side to make it 3-0.
• The Hawks rallied for a pair in the bottom of the inning, managing two runs on one hit. Freshman Bryce walker scored the first run on a passed ball and Sullivan picked up an RBI when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
• The Pioneers kept the pressure on with a four-run second inning. DeFilippo did the most damage again, plating two with a single up the middle.
• Hartford chipped away at its 7-2 deficit later in the second inning when MacKinnon singled and scored on a two-run home run to right by Ostberg. Junior shortstop Ben Bengtson cut SHU's lead to 7-5 on the next at-bat, sending a solo shot over the fence in left center.
• The Hawks took the lead with three runs the third. MacKinnon worked a bases loaded walk, making it 7-6, and Ostberg put Hartford in front 8-7 with a two-out single to left-center.
• DeFilippo struck again for the Pioneers in the fourth, sending an RBI double into the gap in left-center to tie the game at 8-8 and chase Hartford starter Thomas Feehan.
• Moconyi relived Feehan with two outs in the fourth and shut SHU down the rest of the way. He didn't allow a runner to reach third and struck out eight of the 17 batters he faced.
• Hartford scored the game-winner in the sixth when Sullivan's sacrifice bunt single scored Bardzell on a squeeze play.

 
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Moconyi threw 62 pitches, with 46 for strikes.
• Moconyi had only pitched two innings prior to Tuesday's appearance, allowing one hit and zero runs. He now has pitched 6.2 scoreless innings for the Hawks and is the only member of the staff yet to give up a run.
• When Bengtson and Bardzell his back-to-back home runs in the second inning it marked the second time Hartford had accomplished that feat in the past three days. Bengtson and Bardzell also hit consecutive home runs during the Hawks' 4-3 win against Fairfield on Saturday, April 2.
• Tuesday's starting pitchers combined to surrender 13 runs in 5.2 innings, while the bullpens combined to allow four runs in 8.1 innings.
• Bardzell finished 0-for-3 to end his 12-game hitting streak.
• MacKinnon upped his average to .299 with his third multi-hit outing in the past five games. It is the highest his average has been since going 2-for-5 (.400) in the season opener at Mercer.
• Ostberg's four RBI were a new season best. Tuesday was also Ostberg's fifth game with at least three hits.

 
NEXT UP:
The Hawks will visit UConn (16-9, 3-0 American) on Wednesday at 3 p.m. It will be the fifth non-conference game in four days for Hartford, with all coming against in-state competition. The Hawks trail 15-37 in the all-time series, but enter this matchup riding a three-game winning streak against the Huskies. All three of those wins came in West Hartford, with the Hawks' last win in Storrs coming on April 14, 1992. Hartford's last series road win came on April 29, 1999, when the Hawks claimed a 6-3.