BROOKLINE, Mass. – Sophomore righthander Steve Richard shut out the Hartford Hawks for seven innings to lead the Maine Black Bears to a 5-1 baseball victory Friday.

Richard improved to 4-0 as he struck out eight while giving up five hits and walking two.

The Bears scored single runs in the second and third innings to give Richard all the cushion he needed. Mike Ferriggi’s RBI single scored Matt McGraw in the second after McGraw had doubled. Joel Barrett’s sacrifice fly in the third drove in Greg Creek, who had notched his first career triple.

Maine added three more runs in the sixth inning when Ryan Quintal led off with a solo homer. McGraw followed with a double, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on an Aaron Izaryk sacrifice fly. The Bears then loaded the bases, highlighted by a Ferriggi double, and scored the inning’s last run on a walk to Creek.

The Hawks scored their only run in the ninth when Ryan Cuscovitch reached reliever Nolan Boike for a solo homer.

The Bears stay in Brookline for single games against Northeastern today and Vermont on Sunday.

Hartford (0-6) 000 000 001 – 1 7 1

Maine (10-8) 011 003 00x – 5 9 0

Cekovsky, Browne (6) and Crowley; Richard, Martin (8), Boike (9) and Izaryk

Beavers drop two

At Boston, the UMaine-Farmington Beavers dropped the first two games of their season to Fisher College, 5-1 and 6-3, respectively.

In the opener, the Falcons pushed across four runs in the fifth inning and added another in the sixth to erase a 1-0 UMF lead.

UMF’s Ray Doubleday went the distance and took the loss.

In the nightcap, Fisher scored single runs in three of the first four innings then put it away with three runs in the fifth.

Ben Savielo took the loss for the Beavers, going all seven innings.

(First Game)

UM-Farmington 010 000 0 – 1

Fisher 000 041 x – 5

Doubleday and McLaughlin; Holland and Eugenio

(Second Game)

UM-Farmington (0-2) 000 201 0 – 3

Fisher (4-10) 110 130 x – 6

Saviello and McLaughlin; Yanke, Van Offeren (2) and Eugenio

Softball

Maine takes two

At Vestal, N.Y., Sarah Bennis and Jenna Merchant each pitched shutouts as the Maine Black Bears opened America East play with a sweep of Binghamton, 2-0 and 4-0.

In the first game, Bennis struck out eight and gave up just three hits for UMaine, which upped its record to 7-15.

Brittany Cheney supplied the offense with an RBI single and sacrifice fly.

In the second game, Merchant got the win with five innings of shutout ball while Alexis Pullen pitched the final two to get the save for the Bears.

Lauren Dulkis and Dana Grimm each had RBI singles for UMaine while Amy Kuhl added an RBI groundout.