THE BASICS:
 
RESULTS:  UAlbany 7, Hartford 4
LOCATION:  Fiondella Field (West Hartford, Conn.)
RECORDS:  Hartford (20-24, 8-10 America East), UAlbany (21-23, 8-12 America East)
W:  Ray Weber (1-1) L: Connor Lewis (3-3) S: Dominic Savino (4)
 
 
THE LEAD: 
The Hawks' ninth-inning rally came up short as the University of Hartford baseball team (20-24, 8-10 America East) dropped a 7-4 decision to UAlbany (21-23, 8-12 AE) during Sunday's series finale at Fiondella Field. Hartford trailed 7-2 heading into the ninth but scored a pair of runs and managed to put two more runners on base with the tying run at the plate, before Great Danes reliever Dominic Savino came in to record the game's final out.
 
Savino, who picked up his fourth save of the season, had pitched 5.1 innings out of the bullpen and took the loss in the series opener on Saturday.
 
The Great Danes led, 3-2, before breaking the game open with a four-run eighth inning. Right fielder Trevor Thompson, center fielder Ashton Bardzell and third baseman Zachary Ardito each had two hits for the Hawks, while Patrick Lagravinese, Evan Harasta and Connor Powers had multi-hit games for UAlbany.
 
Prior to the game, Hartford honored five players as part of the Hawks' Senior Day ceremony: David Drouin, John LaRossa, David MacKinnon, Dalton Ruch and Brian Stepniak.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• UAlbany scored a pair of runs in the second inning on a two-run double by Lagravinese.
• The Hawks evened the game at 2-2 in the third. Ruch and catcher Bryce Ramsay both walked, with Ramsay eventually scoring on a wild pitch and Ruch scoring on a sacrifice fly by MacKinnon.
• UAlbany regained the lead, 3-2, in the fourth on an unearned run, which scored on a single by Harasta.
• The Great Danes padded their lead with four runs in the eighth, all charged to reliever Alex Moconyi. Moconyi allowed a pair of hits, a walk and a hit batsman in the frame, before Powers lined a two-run, two-out double off Hawks reliever John Mormile to make it 7-2.
• Designated hitter Nick Campana smashed a solo homer to right to jump-start the Hawks' rally in the ninth.
• Ardito singled, advanced on an error and scored the game's final run on an RBI single from Thompson.

 
 
BY THE NUMBERS:

• Campana's homer was his fourth of the season and ended a three-game home run drought for Hartford.
• Sunday marked the first career multi-hit game for Ardito and Thompson, both freshmen.
• Bardzell now has 19 games with at least two hits this season and is Hartford's active leader with a .355 batting average.
• Lewis went 4.1 innings, allowing just two earned runs, snapping a string of back-to-back starts of at least seven innings.
• MacKinnon moved into third place on Hartford's career at-bats list, with 725. He is also now tied for third in career games played, with 190. MacKinnon is the Hawks' all-time leader in hits (263) and runs scored (152).

 
 
NEXT UP:
The Hawks will host Central Connecticut on Wednesday, May 17, at 11 a.m. It will be Hartford's final home game of the season and will also serve as Hawk Nation Education Day, with elementary and middle school students coming to tour the campus and learn about going to college, prior to the game against the Blue Devils. For more information about Hawk Nation Education Day, please call 860-768-4295.

Live stats for Wednesday's game will be available HERE and Twitter updates will be provided by @HartfordBASE.