Score: #6 UAlbany 8, #3 UMBC 5

Location: Mahaney Diamond in Orono, Maine

Records: UAlbany (20-26, 9-14 AE); UMBC (22-28, 12-11 AE)

Short Story: UAlbany opened the America East baseball tournament with an 8-5 victory over three-seed UMBC driven by Dominic Savino on the mound and Connor Powers at the plate.

Coach Mueller: “Today we were pretty good offensively early in the game.  We had some mistakes that opened up some innings for UMBC and we're going to have to play cleaner baseball tomorrow for sure.  But today was a great win.  Dom was great today, and Brendan was great at the end.  Obviously we're very excited to keep going in the winner's bracket.”

Key Stats

• Dominic Savino lasted 7.1 innings, allowing five runs on six hits with six strikeouts
• Brendan Smith closed out the final 1.2 innings, allowing two hits with four strikeouts
• Patrick Lagravinese hit 3-6 with a double and two runs scored
• Matt Codispoti hit 1-5 with a triple and two RBIs
• Travis Collins hit 2-2 with three walks and two runs scored
• Connor Powers hit 3-6 with a double, a home run and four RBIs

How it happened

• With two outs in the top of the first, Connor Powers hit a two-run home run to right-center, immediately giving UAlbany a 2-0 lead
• With runners on second and third in the top of the second, Matt Codispoti grounded out to second, allowing Brad Malm to score from third.  After Travis Collins drew a walk, Powers hit a two-RBI double to give UAlbany a 5-0 lead before getting thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.
• The top of the third inning saw Marc Wangenstein hit a leadoff double and see UAlbany load the bases with one out, forcing a UMBC pitching change.  The Great Danes came away with one run when the new pitcher committed a throwing error on a pickoff attempt to first base.
• UMBC scored its first run in the bottom of the third
• UMBC loaded the bases with two outs on the bottom of the fourth, and scored three runs to cut the lead to 6-4
• Brad Malm hit an RBI single to shallow right field with two outs in the top of the fifth
• Codispoti hit a two-out RBI triple in the top of the seventh to put UAlbany up 8-4
• UMBC scored one run in the bottom of the eighth, bringing the final score to 8-5

Next: UAlbany advances to the winner's bracket where they will face two-seed UMass Lowell Thursday at 2:30 p.m.  UAlbany went 2-4 against UMass Lowell during the regular season.