FARMVILLE, Virginia – Early in the Maryland Eastern Shore baseball team's season, the Hawks are still searching to put together a complete game in all three phases as they dropped the second game of a three-game set to Longwood University 11-7 on Saturday (February 19).
 
If not for an early deficit fueled by fielding errors in the first three innings, the Hawks may have come away with their first win of the year.
 
"I was very pleased that our guys fought back, they could have shut it down big time in the third or fourth inning when they were down 8-0 but we chipped away," head coach Brian Hollamon said. "That's what nine innings does for you, it'll let you get back in the game if you're down by eight runs."
 
It was a rough start for the Hawks early in the game as mistakes once again plagued the field and the bats failed to make solid contact against the Lancers young lefty Kevin Warunek despite a hard right-handed platoon.
 
The Shore was down 8-0 heading into the fourth as starter Noah Covington was knocked around to the tune of eight hits and eight runs, but the box score doesn't tell the whole tale as the junior was only charged with three earned runs over his three innings of work.
 
"Sometimes you've got to take some of the errors that you make and take some of the mental errors that you make," Hollamon said. "Add them all together and then it really tells the story about what went on."
 
With a single to lead off the inning, Dillon Oxyer was advanced to second on a groundout before catcher Ryan Howe smacked a single to right to score Oxyer.
 
As Covington's pitch count rose against Longwood, pitching coach Shawn Phillips made the call to the pen for Derrick Rabb, Jr., who had his off-speed pitches working through four innings of work, giving up just two earned runs while striking out two.
 
"Even though the game wasn't going our way, I just came in to do a job, that's what I did," Rabb Jr. said. "Came in the game, got outs, really just wanted to put the ball in play to let the guys behind me do what they do so we could get back out to hit."
 
The Hawks had a rally in the fifth, able to rattle off four runs in the inning sparked by Ryan Davis' leadoff triple – the freshman's first career hit.
 
"Lefty on the mound, just trying to go away with it," Davis said. "I just happened to catch barrel and drive it."
 
Following the triple bagger, a series of singles by Brantley Cutler and Brian Cordell continued the rally, capped off by doubles from Oxyer and Tyler Woodward to have the Hawks within five runs in what had seemed like a runaway game for the home squad.
 
Woodward has four RBIs over the first two games of the season, including another off a single in the 7^th.
 
"Just really trying to put good contact on the ball, get low line drives and knock a couple of guys in," Woodward said. "They're all bittersweet because we weren't able to tie the game up, but any time we can knock a few guys in it's a good feeling."
 
While comfortable with his entire squad at the plate, Hollamon is banking on a big year from the senior catch, either behind the plate or at the designated hitter position he played in the loss.
 
"He's doing great things with two strikes," Hollamon said. "I don't feel like he'll come out of the lineup a ton, it's just a matter of where he's going to be."
 
Despite early defensive gaffes, the infield showed out in the bottom of the seventh as Rabb Jr. had loaded the bases with two outs. The graduate student didn't falter though, knowing he could put the ball on the ground and put trust in his team behind him.
 
Allowing a soft hit to third, Davis was heads up, throwing straight home for the first out of the jam with Howe then sending a rocket to first for the second to end the inning.
 
"Ryan did his thing," Rabb Jr. said. "He knew what to do with the ball, from Rabb to Ryan to Ryan."
 
The series closes on Sunday (February 20) with the getaway game against Longwood, Hawks senior Evan Nibblett is slated to start against Lancers redshirt sophomore Dominick D'Ercole.
 
"I want to put a game together," Hollamon said. "I want to put together nine innings of solid baseball. Hitting, pitching, fielding – put it all together. I want all three components of the game to where we want to be."