SALISBURY, Maryland – A late surge of offense wasn't enough for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore baseball team against Merrimack College, falling at home 3-6 on Saturday, April 2.
With the loss the Hawks fall to 6-20 and 4-8 in the Northeast Conference at the midpoint in the season.
"It was a big letdown to be honest with you," interim head coach
Shawn Phillips said. "We have a walk off win on Friday, we didn't play too well yesterday, and we just didn't swing the bats very well today. It's just a letdown feeling, you just leave the ballpark not feeling that great."
Evan Nibblett started his seventh game of the season for the Hawks, seeing just one over the minimum until the fourth inning when Merrimack grabbed a run from a single and a double.
The Warriors extended their lead in the sixth with a pair of runs with an RBI double followed by a sacrifice fly. Nibblett would work out of the inning with his second strikeout of the afternoon, but the day would be over heading into the next frame.
"He does what he does – every Sunday we can always rely on him for five or six good innings," Phillips said. "They got to him in the sixth with two runs, gave up three (total), so three over six, can't ask much more from your starting pitcher."
The Hawks were tagged with three more runs in the seventh following a Warrior home run and a pair of unearned runs that crossed the plate following an error.
Although down by six, the Hawks showed determination in the eighth by stringing together a few runs of their own when
Kyle Cincinnati and
Luke Myers led off with a pair of singles.
Derrick Mayes II and
Dillon Oxyer proceeded to hit back-to-back singles themselves, driving in the two runners on base.
One more run was scored on an
Alex McCoy groundout as Mayes scored from third.
"Our guys are gonna fight nine innings," Phillips said. "It's good to see from our guys that they're going to fight, and we made it a game there. They could have folded but they showed some heart there in the later innings, got guys on and tried to get some guys across."
Oxyer led the way for the Hawks at the plate, going two-for-three with a walk, an RBI, and a stolen base. Also chipping in was Myers with two hits of his own and his run scored in the eighth – he was a standout for the Hawks this weekend, batting .571/.667/.571 with two runs and a walk.
Nibblett finished with two strikeouts and no walks with three runs against. Braddy Porter,
Nick Gatton and
Caden Parker each went an inning out of the pen with no earned runs against and combined for five strikeouts.
There's a ton of action in store for the Hawks this week, with the rare Tuesday midweek meeting with Mount St. Mary's (MD) for the second of five times this season, and then hosting rival Coppin State for a three-game NEC series starting on Thursday (April 6).
"It's going to be busy," Phillips said. "We have off tomorrow, a game Tuesday, practice Wednesday and games Thursday, Friday and Saturday – we can't sit there and feel sorry for ourselves because we're going to be right back into it with the busy week."
Keep up to date with the Hawks on Twitter via @ESHawksBase.
