PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Lafayette College Leopards on Sunday (February 27) to end the 2022 Eastern Shore Classic.

With the Hawks just one out away from victory in the seventh inning, the Leopards rallied to score nine runs to come away with a 14-7 win. The Shore fell to the Saint Peter's University Peacocks 10-4 before their game with LC.

In the first game with SPU, the Peacocks got out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning. The Shore got one run in the bottom of the second when sophomore Kelsie Ekstrom hit a two out RBI double to right field to bring classmate Ryan Merriwether in to score.

Saint Peter's scored four in the third and two in the fourth to go up 9-1. Ekstrom once again hit an RBI double with two outs and this time it scored sophomore Ameenah Ballenger. Graduate student Kaylyn Sterling came up after that by hitting a single through the left side to bring sophomore Julia Garcia across home plate.

The score was 9-3 at that point and it stayed that way until the final inning. The Peacocks scored a run in the top of the inning and Ballenger would score her second run of the game to make the score 10-4 before the game ended.

Ballenger had two hits to go along with her two runs against Saint Peter's. Ekstrom and Merriwether also had two hits in that game.

Eastern Shore and Lafayette each scored early to begin their contest. LC scored in each of the first three innings, while the Hawks scored in both the first and second inning. The first two runs came off the bat of Garcia as she crushed a double to the center field fence to score sophomore Tatum Kresley and freshman McKenzie Abiley in the first inning.

In the second inning, Abiley doubled to score Sterling. Ballenger was the next batter and hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Kresley. Garcia was the next batter and she hit her second double of the game to bring Abiley across home plate. Lafayette scored one run in the top of the third and the score stood tied at five until the bottom of the fourth.

Ballenger hit a bullet up the middle and an error on the Leopards allowed Abiley to score to make the score 6-5. Garcia continued her strong day at the plate after that by hitting a single through the right side to score Ballenger. The Hawks kept their 7-5 advantage until that fateful last inning.

Eastern Shore retired the first two batters of the inning to get within one out of the win. The Leopards then drew two walks to have the tying runs on base. Kaya Ciccone-Cozart hit a shot to deep right field for Lafayette as Sterling hustled to track the ball and laid out for the catch. She appeared to make the grab, but the umpire ruled that the ball was not caught and the two runners scored to tie the game at seven.

After the controversial play, LC went on to get six more hits and score seven more runs to get a total of nine runs with two outs. The Hawks did not get any hits in the bottom of the inning as Lafayette escaped with the win.

Garcia went 3-4 with four RBIs in the game. Abiley went 3-4 with three runs scored and Kresley was 2-4 with two runs scored while coming one out away from throwing a complete game.

Maryland Eastern Shore will now travel to Huntington, West Virginia to participate in the Marshall Round Robin on March 4-6. The team will face Winthrop, Purdue Fort Wayne and the host Marshall for a combined five games over the three day event.