LEXINGTON, Va. - VMI pounded out a season-high 18 runs on 22 hits, running their season-opening win streak to eight with an 18-4 victory over Maryland Eastern Shore Friday afternoon at Gray-Minor Stadium. 

VMI (8-0) jumped on top with a six-run first inning, taking a 10-1 lead after just three frames.  The Hawks (0-8), meanwhile, managed a three runs in the eighth for their largest rally of the day.

The top of the Keydet lineup thrived once again, as junior Sam Roberts went 2 for 5 with a career-best five RBIs, while freshman Cory Spangenberg went 4 for 5 with two doubles, a home run, a stolen base and four RBIs.  Junior Graham Sullivan continued his torrid tear, going 4 for 5 with three RBIs, including a two-run home run in the second inning, his first of the year.

On the mound, VMI sophomore Adam Lopez (2-0) worked six innings, allowing just an unearned run on four hits, striking out a career-best 11.  Freshman Donnie Haines (0-2) took the loss for the Hawks, being charged with 10 runs, nine earned, in four innings.  At the plate, however, Haines drove in three of the Hawks' four runs, while Phil Vaughn, Lucas Koenig and Tre-von Johnson each had two hits.

UMES opened the scoring in the top of the first, as junior J.J. Corriveau singled through the left-side of the infield, stole both second and third base before scoring on an error.  The Keydets answered immediately, as Roberts reached on an error and came around to score on Spangenberg's full-count home run down the right-field line.  Sullivan followed with an RBI double three batters later, while Jacob Morley, Ombri Rivers and Justin Topping each had run-scoring singles to put the Keydets up, 6-1.

Sullivan's second-inning blast put the hosts up 8-1, while a double by Roberts in the third pushed the margin to 10-1.  After leaving two runners stranded in the fourth, the Keydets struck for one in the fifth and five in the sixth, when Roberts cleared the bases with a three-run double.

Lopez, meanwhile, allowed no more than a single base runner in each of his six innings of work, while also posting a strikeout in each inning.  The right-hander recorded each of his first five outs via strikeout, and retired 12 of 13 batters at one point.  Freshman Miles McQuaig came on in the seventh for his first career mound appearance, and after allowing just a two-out single in the seventh, surrendered Haines' bases-loaded, two-out double to left field in the eighth.  Andrew Deal came on to record the final out of the inning, before Alan Watts struck out the side in the ninth.

The Keydets tacked on two final runs in the eighth, when Steele Myers plated Andrew Montague, who reached base on his first collegiate hit, while Myers scored on George Piccirilli's two-out single, accounting for the final margin.  In all, VMI played 21 players, as just one Keydet starter remained in the game at the conclusion.

Game two of the weekend series is scheduled for Saturday at Gray-Minor Stadium, with first pitch set for 2 p.m.

Keydet Quick Hits

• VMI improved to 7-0 all-time against UMES with the victory.
• VMI's 18 runs are the most since defeating Gardner-Webb, 21-3, last April 10. VMI's last 20-hit performance also came against GWU, this time in the Big South Championship on May 19, 2009.
• Cory Spangenberg currently leads VMI with a .444 batting average, 16 hits, five doubles (tied), three home runs (tied), an .833 slugging percentage and five stolen bases in his freshman season.
• The Keydets have hit home runs in every game this season, and have out-homered their opponents, 18-1.
• Lopez's 11 strikeouts are the most by a Keydet pitcher since Trey Barham did so against Radford on April 5, 2008.
• Lopez is the first Keydet with multiple wins this season, as VMI entered the contest with its seven victories going to seven different pitchers.