SALISBURY, Maryland – It was a rough afternoon for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore baseball team, falling to Merrimack 2-20 on Saturday, April 1.
 
"You play this game long enough and you're going to have days like this," interim head coach Shawn Phillips said.
 
Merrimack was able to grab an early home run off starter Noah Covington in the first inning before the senior started settling in through his 5.2 innings of action.
 
The Hawks were able to even up the meeting in the third inning when Kyle Cincinnati drew a bases loaded walk to push Alex McCoy across the plate.
 
In the fifth the Warriors were able to extend their lead to 3-1 on a two-RBI single to right center. A costly error in the sixth with two outs would eventually end up leading to an eight-run inning, sinking the Hawks even further.
 
"We were there 3-1 and then they got ahead on a big inning with a three-run home run (in the fifth) and then the error happened (in the sixth)," Phillips said.
 
The Warriors grabbed another nine runs over the next three innings, but the Hawks showed resilience in the bottom of the ninth when Carter Rieben drew a leadoff walk. Rieben advanced on a wild pitch and then was driven in by an Anders Brown single to show the Hawks aren't backing down no matter the situation.
 
"We just have to come back ready to play tomorrow," Phillips said. "The mindset is to win the series, we set ourselves up yesterday to have the opportunity to win the series on Sunday."
 
The Brown's were a bright spot for the Hawks offense, as Anders Brown was two-for-four with one RBI and Marcus Brown was two-for-four in his first start since February 26 against Quinnipiac.
 
Covington was tagged was the loss but struck out five and didn't allow a walk with just three of his seven runs today earned – also lowering his BB/9 to still nation leading .20 over 46 innings.
 
The Hawks (6-19, 4-7 NEC) and Warriors (6-15, 3-6 NEC) will face off in the rubber match at noon on Sunday, April 2 at the Henry S. Parker Athletic Complex. Live Stats will be provided with a link available via the University of Maryland Eastern Shore athletics website.
 
Follow the action on Twitter via @ESHawksBase.