Mount Pleasant, S.C. -- Junior Luke Johnson (Lewes, Del.) pitched into the sixth inning, and Justin Taylor (Reston, Va.) had a pair of RBI hits, as the visiting UMBC Baseball team defeated CAA favorite College of Charleston, 7-3, on Friday night.

Freshmen pitchers Joshua Rivera (Leesburg, Va.) and Ben Craig (Keezletown, Va) combined to allow just one run over the final 3.2 innings in relief of Johnson.

Eight of the nine Retrievers in the lineup had at least one hit, while all nine reached base. 

Ian Diaz (Philadelphia, Pa.) scored three runs and had an RBI hit, while Tony Krueger (Appleton, Wisc.) drove in a pair himself. 

How it Happened:

• UMBC (1-0) jumped out to an early lead when Diaz smacked a double on the second pitch of the game, and would eventually score on an Anthony Swenda (Bridgeport, Pa.) RBI single.
• The hosts would knot it up in the bottom half of the inning, but Johnson would get the Cougars to strand runners on the corners thanks to foul pop up and a strikeout
• The Retrievers would grab the lead right back in the second when Christian Easley (Collinsville, Va.) walked with out, took two bases on a wild pitch and would score when Diaz beat out a double play ball. 
• Diaz moved to second on a throwing error and would score on a Taylor single to make it 3-1.
• Charleston put the first two on in the bottom of the second, and a sacrifice bunt moved both into scoring position, but Johnson struck out the next two batters to escape the damage.  
• After both teams went down in order in the third, UMBC would add to its lead.
• Dawson Baracani (Sammamish, Wash.) and Diaz worked back-to-back one out walks, and both would score on a Krueger double. 
• Taylor would then greet the new Cougars pitcher by smacking an RBI single on his first pitch out of the bullpen to score Krueger and make it 6-1.
• Johnson continued to cruise, retiring nine in a row, until issuing a one out walk in the fifth. However, he would induce a double play to the next batter to end the inning.
• After a scoreless top of the sixth, Johnson got a groundout to start the bottom half, but the hosts would hit a homer and a double to end his day
• Rivera entered and would strand a pair of runners in scoring position to keep the lead at 6-2
• Matt Ryan (Bethesda, Md.) would leadoff the top of the seventh with a walk and then would go to third on a Leewood Molessa (Pullman, W.Va) single. 
• Easley then drove in Ryan with an RBI single to make it 7-2 Retrievers
• The first two Charleston batters walked in the bottom of the seventh, but Rivera got a flyout and then Craig entered and got the next two batters to keep the lead at five
• The Cougars again had two on with one out in the eighth, but Craig got a flyout and strikeout to again keep the hosts off the board.
• After the first batter struck out in the bottom of the ninth, Craig allowed a walk, hit by pitch, infield single and another hit batter to make it 7-3 with the bases loaded and one out
• Craig would end the game by inducing a double-play to give the Retrievers the victory

Game two of the series is Saturday at 4 p.m. Joe Pucek (Morristown, N.J.) will get the start on the mound for UMBC.