Box Score RADFORD, Virginia – After securing its first win of the 2022 season a day before, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore baseball team was confident heading into Sunday (March 6) afternoon's series deciding match up with Radford University. Through five and a half innings it seemed that the Hawks (1-10) were cruising, only to have it wiped away in the bottom of the frame as Radford took advantage of small errors committed by the Shore, falling 9-6 to the Highlanders.
 
Senior Evan Nibblett (0-1) took the loss for the Hawks.
 
"Little mistakes are going to cost you a game," head coach Brian Hollamon "We've got to do a better job of playing clean, solid baseball."
 
The Hawks feel behind by one in the second inning but struck back with two of their own in the third, kicked off by Alex McCoy reaching second on an error and then Luke Myers drawing a walk. The pair of freshmen advanced to second on a Derrick Mayes II ground ball to put them both in scoring position.
 
Working back from injury, Bryan Widdowson hit a double that was long overdue and drove in the pair of rookies to make it 2-1.
 
"We swung the bats pretty well," Hollamon said. "Especially in (scoring) situations, we did a nice job."
 
Things began to spiral for the Highlanders pitching in the fifth when Myers hit a single to center and advanced to center on a wild pitch. Mayes then wore a pitch to walk and Myers was quickly driven in on a double by Dillon Oxyer down the third baseline.
 
Widdowson continued his hot hitting day with his second double in the next at bat, driving in both Mayes and Oxyer to make it 5-1.
 
Radford was quick to get runs back in the bottom of the frame though when the Highlanders got some hard hit singles with one out and both runners were driven in by a double to make it 5-3. Another single was hit with two-outs for another run to quickly erase any comfort the Hawks had.
 
"I thought Evan scrambled," Hollamon said. "He didn't have his best stuff but I understand because we had him warmed up to close yesterday."
 
In the top of the sixth, third baseman Riley Horner would have his first hit of the season to reach base then scoring following a McCoy single and Myers sacrifice to make it 6-4 but that would be the last scoring offense the Hawks could muster in the inning following some errors on the basepaths, including a caught stealing that would have been a run a pitch later.
 
"We made a couple mistakes on the bases that cost us a couple runs," Hollamon said. "We didn't execute a sign and got ourselves in trouble there."
 
The bottom of the sixth would be a collapse for the Hawks, giving up three runs in the inning following Nibblett and reliever Derrick Rabb Jr. walking two batters, plus a hit by pitch, giving the Highlanders one too many free passes.
 
"Rabb came in in a tough spot and it's not easy to shut an inning down once things are rolling," Hollamon said.
 
Unrelenting, Radford would grab two more in the bottom of the eighth, putting the game much out of reach as the Hawks bats fell mostly silent in the ninth, with just Brantley Cutler reaching on a throwing error.
 
The Hawks have a ten-day layoff before heading back out on the diamond, heading to George Washington University on Wednesday (March 16) for the first game of a home-and-home between the squads.
 
"We've got a lot of things we want to work on, clean up some of the things that we've made mistakes on the last few weeks," Hollamon said. "We'll definitely be prepared when we get back on the field against GW."