Orono, Maine— UMBC baseball suffered n 8-5 defeat to No. 6 Albany on Wednesday afternoon. The Great Danes scored six of their eight runs in the first three innings to take an early lead. AJ Wright (Cherr Hill, N.J.) and Zack Bright (Fairfax Station, Va.) each drove in two runs in the loss.

Albany will advance to play No. 2 UMass Lowell tomorrow and improve to 20-26 while UMBC will play No. 5 Maine in an elimination game later tonight, falling to 22-28.

Albany jumped out early, getting a pair of runs in the top of the first off a Connor Powers two-run home run with two outs. They would race out to a 6-0 lead with three in the second and one in the third.

UMBC answered back in the bottom of the third, getting a lead-off single from Matt Campbell (Chesapeake, Va.). Campbell would move up on a stolen base and ground out. Joey Goodwin (Rockville, Md./Good Counsel) knocked in Campbell on the first pitch he saw to cut the deficit to 6-1 after three.

The Retrievers continued to chip away, putting up three in the fourth. Collin Stack (Jamestown, N.Y.) started the rally with two outs with a walk. Zack DeThomasis (Rensselaer, N.Y.) reached on an error, with Campbell reaching on a fielder's choice after Stack out-ran the third baseman to the bag. AJ Wright drew a walk to score Stack, with Zack Bright lacing a single to center to score DeThomasis and Campbell to make it 6-4.

However, the Great Danes would score the next two runs to go back in front 8-4.

Wright brought in his second run of the day in the eighth with a single up the middle to score Mitchell Carroll (Oakton, Va.). However that would be as close as the Retrievers would get, falling to Albany.

Raven Beeman (Somerset, Pa.) led the way with three hits, with Wright with two hits.

UMBC will face No. 5 Maine in the elimination game at 6:55 p.m. tonight.