Senior left-hander Brian White pitched six strong innings, allowing three runs for Maryland Eastern Shore, but the Hawks were blanked, 4-0, by William and Mary at Plumeri Park on Thursday.
The loss for UMES (10-28) ends a stretch of seven games in eight days, all on the road. The Hawks boasted a 2-5 mark in that time. W&M (14-19) has won four of its last six games and two in a row.
White (0-5), in arguably his best outing of the season, was outdueled by fellow lefty and Tribe freshman starter Cole Shain. Shain (2-2) scattered four hits and gave up one walk while striking out three in five innings to earn the victory. White surrendered seven hits no walks and struck out two.
The four William and Mary pitchers to follow allowed a combined two hits, three walks and six strikeouts.
Sophomore third baseman Elliott Alston went 2-for-4 with a double, one of two extra-base hits for UMES on the night.
Alston's counterpart Tyler Stampone led the Tribe at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a two doubles, a stolen base and two runs scored. Left fielder Jeff Jones went 2-for-4 with an RBI, run and a steal. Designated hitter Rob Nickle had a pair of RBIs.
Each team turned in some sparkling play in the field. William and Mary turned four double plays and UMES had two.
The Tribe took at 1-0 lead in the fourth inning. Stampone started things off with a double into shallow right. Tadd Bower moved him to third with a groundout to first and Stampone came in on a Nickle RBI groundout to second.
W&M made it 2-0 in the fifth. Lanny Stanfield and Tyler Truxell had consecutive one-out singles before Jones brought Stanfield in with a bunt to the Ben Vasko behind the plate.
Nickle picked up a sacrifice fly in the sixth to push it to a three-run advantage for the Tribe. Stampone scored after leading the frame off with a double over the head of Troy King center field.
Karim Gonzalez came in the seventh and threw two solid innings of relief. He gave up a hit and a run in the eighth.
Jones began the inning with a single through the right side and stole second base. Derrick Osteen sacrificed Jones to third and he came around on a sacrifice fly to left before Stampone was doubled off at third but the damage was done.
The Hawks threatened to spoil the shutout in the bottom of the ninth but Logan Billbrough worked around a Russel Deutschmann double down the left-field line to strike out the side.
UMES jumps back into conference play with a three-game series at Hawks Stadium beginning Saturday with a doubleheader at noon.