NEW LONDON, Conn. - The Albertus Magnus College baseball team rallied from an early five-run deficit, but ultimately lost an 18-12 non-conference game to the United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) on Wednesday.

Elijah Spataj (Cheshire, Conn.) and Shawn Smith (Shelton, Conn.) both had homers and King Rivera (Bridgeport, Conn.) and Colin Telford (Branford, Conn.) each drove in two runs.

THE BASICS

FINAL: Coast Guard 18 | Albertus Magnus 12

RECORDS: Albertus (3-8) | Coast Guard (8-6)

BOX

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Coast Guard jumped out the gates in the bottom of the first with a five-run inning capped by a three-run homer by Jack Steel.
• The Falcons got three of the runs back in the top of the second. With one out, Eddy Garabito (Norwalk, Conn.) and Robert Anton (Woodbury, Conn.) hit back-to-back singles and Anthony Acampora (North Haven, Conn.) walked to load the bases before a sacrifice fly from Colin Telford (Branford, Conn.) put the Falcons on the board. Rivera followed with an RBI single and a wild pitch plated Acampora to make it a 5-3 game.
• The Bears scored three more in the bottom of the third as Drew Basque hit a two-run double to highlight the frame.
• After the offensive outburst over the first three innings, the next three innings were scoreless. 
• Albertus erupted for six runs in the top of the seventh as the first five batters reached safely, which included bases loaded walks to Rivera and Anthony Abate (Naugatuck, Conn.). Smith then gave the Falcons the lead with a two-run homer to make it a 9-8 game.
• The Bears, however, took the lead back with nine runs in the bottom of the seventh. Steel had an RBI double to tie the game and two wild pitches put the Bears up 11-9. Basque highlighted the inning with a three-run double that cleared the bases as the Bears took a 17-9 lead after seven innings.
• With the Falcons trailing 18-9 Spataj hit his second homer of the season to make it an 18-11 game. Telford added one more run with an RBI single. 

ON THE HILL

Albertus

Jack Angelo (East Haven, Conn.)2.2 IP | 8 Hits | 8 Runs | 8 ER | 2 BB | 0 K

Alexander Heidel (New Britain, Conn.) (L, 0-1) 3.2 IP | 3 Hits | 3 Runs | 3 ER | 2 BB | 2 K

Nick Kownack (Schenectady, N.Y.) 0.0 IP | 0 Hits | 3 Runs | 3 ER | 3 BB | 0 K

Tyler Baldwin (Cromwell, Conn.) 1.2 IP | 3 Hits | 4 Runs | 3 ER | 2 BB | 0 K

Coast Guard

Jack Spinnato 1.2 IP | 3 Hits | 3 Runs | 3 ER | 2 BB | 1 K

Jack Gausselin 3.1 IP | 1 Hit | 0 Runs | 0 ER | 0 BB | 2 K

Sean Rojas 1.0 IP | 1 Hit | 4 Runs | 2 ER | 2 BB | 0 K

Ryan Karman (W, 1-0) 1.0 IP | 2 Hits | 2 Runs | 1 ER | 1 BB | 1 K

Jackson Dorsey 1.0 IP | 0 Hits | 0 Runs | 0 ER | 0 BB | 1 K

Aidan Anderson 0.2 IP | 3 Hits | 3 Runs | 3 ER | 1 BB | 1 K

Bode Dykens 0.1 IP | 2 Hits | 0 Runs | 0 ER | 0 BB | 0 K

AT THE PLATE

Albertus

Eddy Garabito 3-for-5 | 2 Runs

Anthony Abate 1-for-3 | 2 Runs | 2 BB | 1 RBI

Elijah Spataj 1-for-5 | 1 HR | 1 Run | 1 RBI

Shawn Smith 1-for-5 | 1 HR | 1 Run | 2 RBI

King Rivera 1-for-4 | 1 Run | 2 RBI

Colin Telford 2-for-4 | 1 Run | 2 RBI

Coast Guard

Drew Basque 3-for-5 | 3 2B | 3 Runs | 5 RBI

Jack Steel 3-for-5 | 1 HR | 2 Runs | 5 RBI

Wyatt Duthu 2-for-4 | 3 Runs | 2 RBI

NOTEWORTHY

Spataj currently is riding a 10-game hitting streak and an eight-game RBI streak.

The Falcons have scored 10 or more runs four times this season.

UP NEXT

The Falcons host Mitchell in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) doubleheader on Saturday, March 29.