Baltimore, Md. –  The UMBC Softball team fought valiantly until the end, but its late rallies weren't enough as visiting Albany swept a doubleheader, 6-2 and 5-1, from the Retrievers on Sunday at UMBC Softball Stadium.

Game 1

Albany (21-8, 7-0)  got on the board with a two-out RBI single in the second inning, and then added three more in the third (two unearned) to take a 4-0 lead. Jaclyn Buckley (Voorhees, N.J./Eastern Camden Regional) and Tori Alexander (Woodbridge, Va./Woodbridge Senior) sandwiched walks around two strikeouts in the bottom of the third, but were stranded. The Great Danes would add single runs in the fifth and seventh to go up 6-0.  UMBC (16-23, 1-7) would rally in the seventh; Danielle O'Neill (Lothian, Md/Southern) and Carly Lesko (New Milford, N.J./New Milford) started off the inning with back-to-back doubles down the left field line to put UMBC on the board. Alexander would get a two out RBI single to score Lesko to make the score 6-2. UMBC would load the bases and get the tying run to the plate with two outs, but could make nothing of it and fell 6-2.

Nicole Casagrand (Melbourne, Fla./Hatboro-Horsham) pitched all seven innings for UMBC falling to 1-5 on the season. The junior allowed six runs, four earned, on eight hits, walked three and struck out two.

Game 2

The Great Danes took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a two-out double off of UMBC starter Jessica Holte (Ashland, Va./Atlee).  Senior shortstop Bridget O'Malley (Baltimore, Md/Seton Keough) tied the game at one in the fourth with a mammoth lead-off homer to left field, but Albany would respond with two in the top of the fifth to take a 3-1 lead. The lead could've been more, but on a one-out double Alexander fielded the ball off the wall in dead-center and relayed to Lesko, who gunned it home to catcher Jordan Sganga (Edgewater, Md./South River) to get the runner at the plate. UMBC had a chance to cut into the lead in the sixth when Morgan Peyou (Mercer Island, Wash./Mercer Island) tripled with one-out, but she was stranded and Albany would make the Retrievers pay by tacking on two more in the top of the seventh.

Holte took the loss, falling to 8-10 on the season, she allowed five earned runs, 11 hits and walked one.

UMBC is back in action Wednesday when they travel to the shore to play a doubleheader at UMES beginning at 2:30