Saint Leo, Fla. (March 8) -- The baseball team dropped an 8-6 final to Bentley on Saturday afternoon, played at Southard Stadium on the campus of Saint Leo University. The Hawks drop to 3-6 with the loss, while Bentley picks up their first win of the season, improving to 1-8.

The Hawks jumped on the board early, picking up two runs in the top of the first. Matt Stone (West Roxbury, Mass.) drove in Dave Wirkus (Orange, Conn.) to open the scoring. Ryan O'Rourke (Norwood, Mass.) then singled to bring in Stone to give the Hawks the early 2-0 advantage.

The Falcons struck for four runs in the bottom of the inning though and added another run to the lead in the fifth. The Hawks brought it back to 5-4 in the seventh. After a walk from Eric Simm (Salem, N.H.) and a double from Adam Hussey (Danvers, Mass.) put runners on second and third, a Wirkus ground-out brought in Simm. Conor Amirault (Haverhill, Mass.) then brought in Hussey on a ground-out.

The Hawks took a 6-5 lead in the top of the eighth when Eric Baca's (Franklin, N.H.) two-run double brought in Melvin Purdue (Jonesboro, Ga.) and Ryan O'Rourke.

Bentley scored a trio of runs in the bottom of the eighth though to put away the Hawks, 8-6.

Mike Fantini (Haverhill, Mass.) dropped to 0-2 on the season with the loss, striking out five over four and one-third innings. Tim Ryan (Milton, Mass.) provided an inning and two-thirds of solid relief, only allowing one hit.

The Hawks are back on the diamond later today, taking on American International at 3 p.m. at Saint Leo University.