photo courtesy of Chris Permar

Boxscore

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Blue Hen junior shortstop Michelle Grap (at right) hit two home runs, tying the school record for career homers, including a two-run shot in the eighth inning as Delaware defeated UMBC, 5-4, Saturday afternoon at the UMBC Spring Classic.

Delaware, which has now won four straight games following a 10-game losing skid, improved to 6-13 on the season and avenged a doubleheader sweep by UMBC in the Blue Hens’ home opener 11 days ago. The Retrievers dropped to 12-5 on the year.

With the game tied at 3-3 in the top of the eighth inning, Delaware centerfielder Jenny Richards was placed on second base to open the frame. After Richards moved to third on sacrifice bunt by Lindsay Novak, she crossed the plate on a passed ball to give the Blue Hens the lead. Grap then followed by drilling a longball over the leftfield fence for her Colonial Athletic Association leading seventh home run of the season.

Grap’s seven home runs this year are just one shy of the UD single-season mark set by Laura Streets in the 2003 season, while both players are now tied for the Delaware career record with 16 homers. However Streets played 182 games in her Blue Hen career, while Grap has needed just 103 games to tie the home run record.

The Retrievers rallied in the bottom of the eighth, as Julia Culotta was placed on second base and immediately went to third on a single up the middle by Angela Yannone. After Shari Beavers was inserted as a pinch runner for Yannone, Kaela Mason delivered a single to left field to drive home Culotta and cut the Delaware lead to one. The runners then moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt by Jessica Vetock, but Delaware pitcher Amanda Stacevicz would buckle down from there.

Stacevicz retired Lauren Brummell on a groundout to third and got Malorie Weller to fly out to rightfield to end the game and notch her third consecutive victory. Stacevicz, who improved to 3-5 on the year, allowed four runs, two earned, on 10 hits while striking out a career-high 10 batters. UMBC pitcher Stephanie Weigman gave up five runs, four earned, on seven hits with eight strikeouts while dropping to 7-2 this season.

Grap opened the scoring with a solo home run over the leftfield fence in the top of the first, but the Retrievers answered in the bottom of the inning when Brummell led off with a single and scored on a one-out double to leftcenter by Amanda Fefel.

Michelle Kenney began the second with a single to center, and after a walk to Rachel Jones, the runners moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt by Cecile Egan. Shanette White then grounded out to second, but Bertie Lake followed with a two-run single to right as Delaware surged in front. However UMBC would answer right back again, as a solo homer by Brummell in the bottom of the second cut the Blue Hen advantage to 3-2.

Delaware tried to increase its lead in the top of the fourth when the Blue Hens had two runners on base with two outs, but White was thrown out at the plate from centerfield by Culotta as she attempted to score on a single by Richards.

After putting runners in scoring position during the fourth and fifth innings but coming up empty each time, the Retrievers finally tied the game in the bottom of the sixth. Culotta led off with a single into rightfield, and two outs later she advanced to third on a single to rightcenter by Vetock. Brummell then reached on an error by Lake at second base, allowing Culotta to score the tying run.

However the Blue Hens scored twice in the eighth and held off the UMBC rally to extend their winning streak to four.

Delaware concludes play at the UMBC Spring Classic on Sunday when the Blue Hens take on Lehigh at 8:45 a.m.