Port Charlotte, Fla. (March 1, 2015)--The Mount St. Mary's baseball team split a pair of games in Florida today, defeating Nebraska Omaha, 8-2, in the morning before falling to Kentucky, 8-2, this afternoon.

In the win over Omaha, Chad Diehl (Westminster, Md.) pitched six strong innings to lead the Mountaineers to the victory.  Diehl allowed one run and three hits in his six innings of work, recording four strikeouts.  Austin Bonadio (Newtown, Conn.) and Ben Smallenbroek (Davidsonville, Md.) each added scoreless innings of relief.

The Mount (2-1) scored single runs in the bottom of the first, third, fourth and fifth to take a 4-0 lead.  In the first, Jay Knight (Frederick, Md.) singled, stole second, moved to third on a flyout, and scored on an Andrew Clow (Bel Air, Md.) sacrifice fly.

Zach Hostetter (Lebanon, Pa.) gave the Mount a 2-0 lead with an RBI single in the third to score Ryan Owens (Burke, Va.).  Knight's RBI groundout in the fourth made it 3-0, and Joshua Lenig (Dumfries, Va.) plated Kory Britton (Columbia, Md.), who reached on a double, with a sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 4-0. 

After Omaha (5-7) got on the scoreboard with a run in the top of the sixth, the Mount broke the game open with four runs in the bottom of the sixth.  Brian Parreira (Annapolis, Md.) provided a two-run single while Clow chipped in an RBI groundout in the inning.

Britton finished 3-for-4 at the plate while Owens (2-for-4, SB) and Knight (2-for-4, SB, RBI) also had multiple-hit games.

In the second game, the Mount grabbed an early 2-0 lead over Kentucky, but saw the Wildcats pull away for an 8-2 win.

The Mount took the lead with a pair of runs in the top of the third.  Brendan Dabagian (Media, Pa.) started the rally when he lined a ball off the pitcher, and then moved to second on an error.  After Tommy Quealy (Pittsburgh, Pa.) was hit by a pitch, the runners moved up on a wild pitch.  Dabagian then scored on a Knight groundout, and Owens followed with an RBI single to right field to make it 2-0.

Kentucky (7-3) answered with two runs in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and one in the sixth to earn the 8-2 win.

Thomas Williams (Bowie, Md.) started for the Mount, allowed six runs (five earned) in four innings.  He struck out three while allowing six hits.  Seth Schubert (Thurmont, Md.) (1 IP, 1ER), Michael Collins (Mercersburg, Pa.) (2 IP, 1ER) and Noah Smith (Irwin, Pa.)  (1 IP, 0ER) also saw action on the mound for the Mount.

Dabagian and Owens provided the Mount's lone hits in the game.

Mount St. Mary's is back in action tomorrow against Northeastern at 3:00 p.m.