BALTIMORE, Md. – The UMBC softball team lost, 9-1, in five innings to Atlantic 10 foe Rhode Island on the third day of the UMBC Spring Classic on Saturday at the UMBC Softball Stadium.

Sophomore pitcher Kayla Martinez (Odenton, Md./Arundel) started in the circle for the first time for the Retrievers and allowed only three earned runs, but fell to 0-1 on the season.

Rhode Island's Sam Bedore threw a complete five innings while striking out six batters to pick up the win.

The Rams scored the game's first nine runs in five innings and while the Retrievers attempted to keep the game from ending by the eight run rule, they came up just short with only one run scored in the bottom of the fifth inning.  The team's lone run came from senior first baseman Angela Yannone (Pasadena, Md./Chesapeake), who hit her first home run of the season.  The only other hit for the Retrievers came from sophomore second baseman Cailtin Chance (Easton, Md./Northwest) in the next at bat but UMBC could not bring her home.

Courtney Prendergast gave the Rams an early lead in the first inning with a home run to straight-away centerfield.  Martinez shrugged it off though and got out of the inning after forcing a ground out to third base. Then, she shut the Rams out in the second and third innings, allowing only one hit in each frame, but she was taken out in the fourth inning after allowing four runs, though only two were earned.

Rhode Island scored four more runs in the top of the fifth to take a commanding nine-run advantage.

UMBC got on the board in the bottom of the fifth on Yannone's solo homerun.

Jocelyn Mattison led Rhode Island going two-for-three with two runs and an RBI.

The Retrievers will look to bounce back on Sunday when they host Brown in their finale in the UMBC Spring Classic at 1:35 p.m.  UMBC beat Brown in the UMBC Spring Classic last year, 9-8 in eight innings.