The Hartford Hawks finished off a three game America East baseball sweep over the Maine Black Bears with a 7-2 win on Saturday at Fiondella Field in West Hartford, Connecticut. Coupled with a 6-5 Stony Brook win over NJIT later Saturday afternoon, the Seawolves were able to capture the regular season conference title.
Maine got their only two runs of the day to take a 2-0 in the third inning without the benefit of a hit. Jordan Schulefand led off with a walk and would steal second and third base while Connor Goodman struckout. Quinn McDaniel then walked, and Schulefand scored and McDaniel went to second on a throwing error by catcher Kevin Koziol. McDaniel advanced to third on a wild pitch and would score on a Joe Bramanti RBI groundout. Devin Kellogg led off the bottom of the third with a double for Hartford, before Black Bears starter Brett Erwin got the next two batters. The Hawks though would take the lead for good when Donnie Cohoon hit a two-run homerun to right centerfield, and Derek Tenney followed that by giving the hosts a 3-2 advantage with a solo homer to left. Tenney added an RBI double in the fifth inning, before Daniel Burnett had a two-run triple and Noah Rivera an RBI single both in the eighth to help finish the sweep.
Erwin (2-5) took the loss allowing four runs on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts in 4.2 innings. Maine only had two hits on the day. Tenney had two hits and two RBI for Hartford, with Cohoon and Burnett also adding two RBI each. Nick Gatton (1-2) won in relief allowing no runs on two hits in 3.0 innings. The Hawks with the sweep punched their ticket as the sixth and final team to compete in next weeks America East Tournament hosted by Maine at Mahaney Diamond in Orono. The Black Bears (27-20, 21-9 in conference play) still will be the #1 seed for the tournament, but lost six of their final nine conference games to allow Stony Brook to take their third consecutive regular season title. The Seawolves however are ineligible to compete for the America East Championship in Orono next week.
