FITCHBURG, Mass -- Baseball traveled to Fitchburg on Friday to play the first game of their conference series with the Falcons. Despite seven runs from the Bucs, the Falcons won the first game of the series, 9-7.

The Basics

Final: Falcons 9, Buccaneers 7

Records: Maritime 11-10 (2-2)

               Fitchburg 7-8 (2-2)

On The Mound

Maritime: Brenden Baiardi (L, 2-4): 4 IP | 10 H | 7 R | 7 ER | 1 BB | 4 K

Fitchburg: Pete Joslyn (W, 2-0): 2.2 IP | 0 H | 0 R | 1 BB | 1 K

                  Demetrius Sampalis (Sv, 2): 2 IP | 2 H | 1 R | 1 ER | 1 BB | 0 K

Inside The Numbers

Maritime

• Damon White notched three hits in the loss. AJ Pietrafesa and Colsen Loughren had two hits. Brett Velzis, Michael Logiudice, and Aidan Weir had one.
• Loughren drove in four runs in the game, White knocked in two, and Jake Houston had one RBI.
• Pietrafesa and Loughren scored twice, and Velzis, Michael Estrada, and Weir scored once.
• Loughren hit a three-run home run, the only extra-base hit in the game for the Bucs. 

Fitchburg

• Jacob Hurrell had three hits in the game for the Falcons. Four others recorded two hits, and three had one hit in the win.
• Nolan Hills drove in two runs, and five others drove in one.
• Hills scored twice in the game, and seven others came in to score once.
• Matthew Kelly, Hurell, Hills, and Adam Koza recorded a double.
• Hurel and Cole DuHaime each stole a base.

How It Happened

The Falcons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a Hills ground out that brought in Hurrell to score.

In the top of the third, the Buccaneers got a run on the board from a White RBI single to score Weir. In the bottom of the third, the Falcons struck for five runs to take a 6-1 advantage. 

Maritime got two runs back in the top of the fourth on a Houston sacrifice fly and a White RBI single to make the score 6-3. Fitchburg got one run in the bottom of the fourth on Koza's double that scored Hills. Fitchburg was up 7-3 after four.

Loughren hit his second homer of the season in the top of the fifth to bring in three runs and pull the Buccaneers within one run, 7-6. In the bottom of the frame, Fithburg scored two on Kelly and Hurrell singles and too ka three-run lead, 9-6.

Things settled down in the mid to late innings, with no runs scored in the sixth, seventh, or eighth innings. Then, in the ninth, Loughren hit a sacrifice fly to score Pietrafesa and get back within two runs, 9-7. That was all the Bucs could muster as they dropped the first game of the series by the same 9-7 score.

What's Next

Maritime and Fitchburg meet in Buzzards Bay on Sunday to finish of the three-game series with a doubleheader beginning at 1 pm.