PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Facing their toughest opponent yet this season, the Hilbert College baseball team returned to Hamburg with a pair of Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference losses on Saturday. 

The Hawks were defeated by the 3x AMCC champions La Roche College, 15-0, 7-1.  The Redhawks shut the visitor's offense down with strong pitching and improved to 17-7 and stay atop the leader board at 4-0 early in the league schedule.

Michael Voveris made a good showing in the night cap as he went six innings with six strike outs while giving up two earned runs. 

Hilbert finished 4-for 31 with Ryan Bonafede going 2-for-4 with a single in the top of the 1st and another in the 6th.  Kevin Moore doubled in the 4th inning and Tyler Shaw singled to left field in the 5th. 

The Hawks scored a run in the top of the 6th after Tristen Aldinger struck out swinging, but reached second on a 1st basemen error.  Paul Wujek then reach on an 3rd base error which scored Aldinger cutting the lead to just three runs (4-1).

La Roche tacked two more runs in the bottom of the seventh and one in the eighth for the final 7-1 score.

La Roche's starting pitcher went seven of the nine innings and fanned nine batters without any walks.

The opening game looked promising for Hilbert three of their first six batters all collected singles.    Anthony Wurstner and Bonafede poked to the outfield before the Hawks hit into an inning ending double play.  But Sal Carroccia started it back up in the top of the second with a single to the short but his time on base wasn't long after he was picked off.

Wujek bunted to get on base and was stranded as his swing was the final bat of the game to make any noise.

The Redhawks inched their way up the score board until a fourth inning explosion of seven runs built a 12-0 lead.

Christopher Newman took the loss on the mound facing 26 batters who scored 11 earned runs.

Stay tuned for any weather-related game changes as the Hawks are scheduled to play Medaille College April 5.