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RICHMOND, Virginia - A furious ninth inning rally was not enough for the Hawks as the baseball team dropped the opening game of this weekend's tournament to Saint Peter's by a final of 10-8.

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (2-2) fell behind in the middle innings before coming back late. Down 10-3 in the bottom of the ninth, the Hawks' bats awakened after a pair of leadoff walks to juniors Justin Somerville (New Windsor, Md.) and Jordan Martin (Atlanta, Georgia). Senior Mike Escanilla (Waldorf, Maryland) loaded the bases with a single and sophomore Jessey Valdez (Dorchester, Massachusetts) plated the two walked runners.

The now five run deficit was cut into further with RBI singles from senior Connor Breslin (Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania) and freshman Joseph NiCastro (New Market, Maryland) to make the score 10-7. Saint Peter's (1-0) promptly responded by swapping pitchers.

Sophomore Grayson Trower (Chesterfield, Virginia) narrowed the gap to two, but the next Hawk grounded out to end the game.

Coach John O'Neil remarked of the comeback attempt, "We were pleased with how our young men fought until the final out was made, but disappointed on how we got ourselves in that situation. We will learn from our mistakes and move on."

After being the steady of success in the opening series, the Hawks' pitching staff experienced a rough outing on Friday. Senior starter J.P. Black (Elkton, Maryland) went from giving up no earned runs over five innings in his first start to six earned runs in his second. The Peacocks exploded for three runs off of Black, two of them earned, then jumped again in the fifth. Black was swapped for Will Turley (Greensboro, Maryland) who surrendered a three run shot.

Freshman Tom Summers (West Decatur, Pennsylvania) pitched a scoreless inning, then fellow freshman Xavier Czepiel (Southhampton, New Jersey) debuted with a three inning, one run performance.

"Unfortunately we put ourselves in tough situations with giving out free bases." O'Neil said. "Saint Peter's did their job and took advantage of our mistakes."

On offense, seven of the nine Hawks collected base hits, with Escanilla, Valdez, Breslin and sophomore Jamison Trower (Chesterfield, Virginia) picking up two hits each. Valdez collected three RBIs to push his season total to seven and his average to .467 over the first four games. In addition, five Hawks drew walks in the game, driving the team's on-base percentage this season to .342.

"We did a good job getting runners on base, but we couldn't find those timely, run producing hits until the ninth." O'Neil said.

UMES will face off with Saint Peter's tomorrow morning at 10:00a.m., with sophomore Toby Hoskins (North East, Maryland) getting the call for the Hawks. The team will then play Richmond at 2:00p.m., with freshman Zach Mills (Parksley, Virginia) slated to be on the hill.