SALISBURY, Maryland – While the scoreboard didn't show wins against the University at Albany in either of the doubleheader games on Saturday (February 26), improvements across the board were visible to the Maryland Eastern Shore baseball team.
 
The Hawks (0-6) dropped game one to the Great Danes (3-3) by a close 3-2 margin, followed by a back-and-forth affair in game two, only to fall 8-6.
 
"Quite honestly, it's still one inning of things that are going awry but we've had our opportunities," head coach Brian Hollamon said. "We've had multiple games with multiple opportunities to win ball games and we have not put the nail in the coffin."
 
Noah Covington (0-2) took to the bump in game one, dueling with Albany starter Anthony Germinerio through six solid innings. The junior allowed just one earned run in his start, improving vastly over his last start where he only went three innings against Longwood.
 
On offense the Shore scattered five hits over seven innings, led by outfielder Brian Cordell who had two in the game. Despite matching the Danes in hits, it wasn't until the seventh inning when Andrew Revels pinch hit for a walk and was driven in by a monster home run to center by Alex McCoy, who was also pinch hitting.
 
"The unfortunate thing is we're looking for timely hits late in the game," Hollamon said.
 
In game two the Hawks jumped out to an early lead against the visitors thanks to Brantley Cutler driving in Derrick Mayes II, who walked in his at-bat, on a single to right. The Shore tacked on two more runs in the second for the early 3-0 lead.
 
Albany was able to strike back in the second with two of their own following a pair of singles, although one run was unearned.
 
"We had some timely hits early in the game, did some good things," Hollamon said. "But then we let people creep back to tying the game or going ahead, it's too late to come back."
 
After a long career in the maroon and silver though, right fielder Brantley Cutler was able to finally connect for his first home run as a Hawk, a day he has been looking forward to since earning MEAC Rookie of the Week honors back as a freshman in 2019.
 
"It was good to get my good first college home run after many home runs in summer ball," Cutler said.
 
The senior also had two excellent plays in the outfield during the sixth inning, nabbing a catch against the wall for an out and making a sliding catch to close out the top of the frame. Consistently one of the most solid fielders since making his debut, Cutler attributes the extra work put in by the outfield staff since the shaky first series of the season.
 
"I think we're cleaning it up a lot, the majority of it was just first game jitters, we hadn't played a game in two years," Cutler said. "Mayes today caught the line drive with the sun right in his eyes, it was a wicked catch – I think we're cleaning it up."
 
The Hawks fell behind though in the third and fourth, where the Danes were able to catch up off of a few well hit balls and take advantage of fielding errors. Catcher Ryan Howe was able to regain the lead in the bottom of the fourth off of a sacrifice fly, but the Hawk relievers weren't able to hold the lead.
 
One of those relievers was Dillon Oxyer, who didn't start at shortstop for the first time in 127 games and pitched his first game ever as a Hawk. The graduate student still had a solid outing on the mound despite the rust, pitching two innings with two earned runs, including his first career strike out – he was unfortunate to take on Albany's Brad Malm who has six home runs through six games in 2022.
 
With one game left in the series, the Hawks look to win their first game of the season. Graduate student Derrick Rabb, Jr. is expected to take his first start of the season with a well-rested pen behind him.
 
"I want them to play the way we played today, we had some timely hits" Hollamon said. "We are still finding our way, we're knocking off the rust. I feel we played a really good series so far, if we could just clean up a few extra things."

The finale is set to take place at noon on Sunday (February 27) at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury.