BALTIMORE - - - The UMBC baseball team secured the No. 2 seed in the 2023 America East Championships with a doubleheader sweep of the UAlbany Great Danes, on Sunday afternoon at Alumni Field. The Retrievers (27-23, 16-8 AE) took the seven-inning opener by a score of 11-7 and won the nightcap by a 7-2 margin.
 
In the opener, UMBC senior center fielder Justin Taylor went 4-for-4, homered and drove in a career-high five runs to support sophomore starter Jayden Shertel, who recorded his fifth victory of the season on the mound.  Graduate student left fielder Christian Easley went 3-for-4 and scored three runs while freshman first baseman Leewood Molessa finished 3-for-4 and scored twice.
 
Junior Joe Pucek (3-3) turned in a terrific performance in the nightcap to earn the victory. The left-hander allowed just one run and scattered six hits over 6.2 innings while fanning five batters. The hosts totaled 13 hits, including six that went for extra-bases. Easley paced the Retrievers with three hits and Molessa, senior designated hitter Michael Cilio and sophomore third baseman Matt Ryan each contributed two hits.
 
In the opener, the Retrievers scored three runs in the bottom of the second inning to break a 2-2 deadlock. Easley came through with an RBI single to give UMBC the lead for good and then Taylor and senior catcher Tony Krueger followed with RBI singles.
 
In the third, junior shortstop Dawson Baracani recorded a two-run single and Taylor and Krueger again came through with RBI singles to make it 9-2.
 
The Great Danes (8-32-1, 2-19 AE) were within 10-7 in the top of the fifth inning but Taylor recorded an RBI single through the middle for the final run of the contest in the bottom of the frame.
 
UMBC broke a 1-1 tie with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and never looked back in the second game.  Cilio delivered the go-ahead run with an RBI single to center field and junior second baseman Anthony Swenda added an RBI sacrifice fly to account for the third run.
 
Ryan and Swenda connected on back-to-back dingers in the bottom of the sixth to expand UMBC's lead to 5-1.  Molessa launched his 16^th big fly of the season in the seventh and is now just one homer and an RBI shy of tying the single-season program mark in both categories.
 
UMBC will host Delaware on Tuesday at 6:00 pm.