The Heartland baseball team split two early-week games entering its spring break trip to Florida this weekend, defeating Muskegon Community College 19-9 on Monday before dropping its first game of the season to Bryant & Stratton College 9-3 on Tuesday.
 
Game 1
The Hawks opened the week with a 7-inning offensive outburst against the visiting Jayhawks of Muskegon Community College. Heartland scored 19 runs on 15 hits in the victory, with 6 players contributing multi-hit afternoons for the home team.
 
Heartland scored early and often in the contest, tallying 7 runs on 6 hits in the opening frame after Muskegon took a 1-0 lead. Jacyk Uehling opened up the frame with a hit-by-pitch, and was followed by hits from Ben Hartl and Sam Antonacci. Matt Santarelli smashed a two-run home run to left field in the inning, while TJ Williams, Daniel Mosele and Uehling all contributed hits to give the Hawks a 7-1 lead.
 
A double by Antonacci in the second inning allowed him to eventually score on a Bobby Atkinson ground out to push the Heartland lead to 8-1. The Hawks would eventually score in every inning, adding 3 more runs in the third frame, 1 run in the fourth, 5 runs in the fifth and two more tallies in the sixth.
 
Antonacci (3-4, 4 R) and Santarelli (3-5, 4 RBI) paced the Hawks offense on the afternoon. Uehling, Hartl, Atkinson and Williams all finished with multi-hit days as well.
 
The Hawks used five different pitchers in the game, with Mason Telford (1-0) picking up the victory after tossing a perfect second frame.
 
Game 2
Offense did not come as easily for the Hawks in Tuesday's matchup with a tough Bryant & Stratton team from Wisconsin. Instead, it was the Bobcats who enjoyed an offensive outburst, knocking-in 9 runs on 16 hits to hand Heartland its first loss of the young season.
 
After a scoreless first two innings between the teams, the Bobcats struck first with a pair of hits in the third frame off of Heartland starter Luke Wright to give them a 1-0 lead. Wright(1-1) tossed 3 innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits while striking out 3.
 
Bryant & Stratton would rally for 3 more runs in the fourth inning on 4 hits off of reliever Nick Walczak. The Hawks responded with two tallies of their own in the bottom half, as Antonacci led the frame off with a single before Atkinson walked. Antonacci would ultimately score on a wild pitch, with Atkinson crossing home plate on a Bobcat error moments later to make it 4-2.
 
The Bobcats would add 1 more run in the sixth before extending the lead even further with 4 runs in the seventh frame. An RBI single by Williams scoring Antonacci in the eighth accounted for the lone other run of the contest for the Hawks, who fell to 6-1 on the year.
 
Heartland will return to action for a 10 am (ET) doubleheader first pitch against Northern Essex Community College in Davenport, Fla. The Hawks will play a total of nine games while on their annual Florida spring break trip.