Boiling Springs, N.C.—UMBC baseball picked up their first win of the year with a big 6-0 victory against Gardner-Webb on Sunday. Sophomore Jacob Christian (Nokesville, Va./Patriot) was masterful, going 7.2 scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts, including 5.1 of perfect ball.

The Retrievers improve to 1-5 on the year, as Gardner-Webb falls to 6-8.

Both teams were held off the scoreboard for a majority of the first part of the game, as both pitchers held the other in check through four.

UMBC got the scoring started in the fifth, as Connor Hax (Bowie, Md./Bishop McNamara) led off the inning with a walk. Freshman Dalton Stewart (Sharpsburg, Md./Boonsboro) followed that up with a single to center to move Hax up a base. Christian Torres (Miami, Fla./Miami Senior) came to the plate and laid down a sac bunt to move the runners into scoring position.

A couple batter later, Collin Stack (Jamestown, N.Y./Monroe CC) laced a single through the left side, scoring Hax to give UMBC the early lead.

The Retrievers added to their lead in the eighth, with Stack leading off the inning with a  walk. He would advance to second on an Andrew Casali (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) single. Jamie Switalski (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland) moved Stack up to third on a sac fly, followed by an AJ Wright (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West) walk that loaded the bases. Hax would get hit by a pitch just two pitched later to allow Stack to score making it 2-0 UMBC after eight.

UMBC would add four insurance runs in the ninth, thanks to a Casali sac fly scoring Torres, and a three-RBI double from Wright to plate Switalski, Stack and Hunter Dolshun (Warwick, N.Y./Warwick Valley) to make it 6-0.

Senior Joe Vanderplas (Fairfax, Va./Tennessee) came in the bottom of the inning and shut the door for his first save of his career.

Christian went 7.2 innings giving up just two hits with 12 strikeouts in the win. Vanderplas went 1.1 innings with one strikeout for the save.

Torres went 2-3 from the dish as the lone Retriever with multiple hits. Wright drove in three runs on the day.

UMBC returns to the diamond on Tuesday, March 6 with a road contest at Delaware at 2:30 p.m. The Black and Gold make their home debut on Wednesday against Towson at 2:30 p.m. at Alumni Field.