Brooklyn, N.Y. (April 10, 2015)—The Mount St. Mary's baseball team fell at LIU Brooklyn, 6-5, on Friday afternoon in the opening game of a four-game Northeast Conference series.  The Blackbirds rallied with three runs in the bottom of the ninth to earn the victory.

Zach Hostetter (Lebanon, Pa.) got the Mount (4-18, 2-3 NEC) on the scoreboard by drilling a solo home run to left to lead off the second inning.  The Blackbirds threatened in the bottom of the inning by loading the bases with two outs, but Mount St. Mary's starter Thomas Williams (Bowie, Md.) retired Anthony Capo on a foul out to catcher for the final out to escape the jam.

Mount St. Mary's built on its lead with three runs in the top of the third to push the lead to 4-0.  Ryan Owens (Burke, Va.) led off the inning with a bunt single and he moved to second on a passed ball.  Clow singled through the left side to put runners on the corners with no outs, and Kory Britton (Columbia, Md.) followed with an RBI double to right center field to make it 2-0.  The final two runs of the inning came on productive outs as Hostetter's grounder to short brought home Clow, and Brian Parreira's (Annapolis, Md.) sacrifice fly to left scored Britton to make it 4-0.

The Blackbirds fought back with single runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings.  Charles Misiano hit an RBI single to right field in the fourth while Tommy Jakubowski belted a solo home run to lead off the fifth to cut the Mount advantage in half.

The Mountaineers added to their lead in the top of the seventh.  Jay Knight (Frederick, Md.) led off with a base hit, and he moved to second on an Owens sacrifice bunt.   Knight stole third, and he trotted home when Clow laced an RBI double to right-center field to give the Mount a 5-2 advantage. 

LIU answered with a run in the bottom of the seventh off Mount reliever Jordan Lawson (Camp Hill, Pa.).  The Blackbirds strung together three consecutive two-out singles, the last an RBI base hit by Andrew Turner to cut the Mount lead to 5-3, putting runners on second and third.  Lawson was able to get out of the inning with a strikeout to preserve the lead.

The Blackbirds (10-17, 3-2 NEC) rallied with three runs in the bottom of the ninth to earn the victory.  Jakubowski led off with a single and Mark Hernandez followed with a double to right field to put runners on second and third with no outs.  Bobby Webb then singled to left to plate both runners to even the score.  Ben Smallenbroek (Davidsonville, Md.) came on in relief for the Mount and retired the first two batters.  Smallenbroek, however, threw consecutive wild pitches to allow Webb score the winning run.

Williams had a quality start for the Mount, allowing two runs with four strikeouts in six innings of work.  Lawson took the loss, allowing four runs in two-plus innings.

Clow and Tyler Post (Brookeville, Md.) paced the Mount offense with two hits each as eight different Mountaineers recorded at least one hit in the game.  Jakubowski and Hernandez each went 3-for-5 at the plate for the Blackbirds.

The teams continue the series with a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader tomorrow at LIU Field.

Game Notes:  LIU Brooklyn holds a 54-25 lead in the all-time series with the Mount since the Mountaineers moved to NCAA Division I in 1989…The Mount is now 1-12 on the road against LIU Brooklyn since 2009.

--Mount St. Mary's University Athletics--