Box Score

DOVER, Delaware - Heading into the home stretch of conference play the Maryland Eastern Shore baseball team needed to win three out of four in order to keep their tournament hopes alive. Today, despite a great effort, they used their one mulligan. The Hawks fell to the Hornets, 4-1, in Dover, and will now need three wins in a row for a chance to advance.

Maryland Eastern Shore built a 1-0 lead early thanks to a home run by senior Mike Escanilla (Waldorf, Maryland) in the first inning, but could not get another runner past home plate after that. A strong performance by sophomore Chris Melrath (Rising Sun, Maryland) of five innings, two earned runs and two strikeouts unfortunately came in a loss. Fellow sophomore pitcher Toby Hoskins (North East, Maryland) also pitched effective in relief.

Besides Escanilla on offense, freshman Tom Summers (West Decatur, Pennsylvania) collected two hits and sophomore Isaiah Chambers (Bowie, Maryland) added a hit of his own.

The Hornets were led by pitcher Lane DeLeon, who struck out 10 Hawks on the way to a complete game victory where he gave up four hits and one run. Outfielder Darnell Maisonet went 2-for-4 with two RBI's for Delaware State.

"Our guys played hard." said Hawks coach John O'Neil. "Our pitching and defense did a good enough job to keep us in the game. We couldn't hit DeLeon. He pitched a good game and we got to tip our cap to him. We got to come out and work hard tomorrow."

In addition to the Hawks needing a sweep tomorrow, the Spartans will also need to sweep Coppin State on the road to help Maryland Eastern Shore stay in the running.

Sunday's doubleheader begins at one in the afternoon at Soldier Field in Dover.