BEL AIR, Md. - The Harford baseball team (12-3, 4-0 MD JUCO) remained atop the conference standings with a 25-8 MD JUCO victory over CCBC Essex (0-11, 0-5 MD JUCO) at home on Thursday. The Fighting Owls recorded a season-best 21 hits and 25 runs in the win.

Harford scored five runs in the first and second innings, four in the third and eight in the fourth. Five Fighting Owls collected three hits, apiece, including a season-best three hits for Sean Downing.

The top three positions in the order, Jon McAllister, Shane Garrett and Norm Donkin, also added three hits, as well as catcher Jose Martinez. Eleven different players collected an RBI and 10 different players added at least one hit.

Martinez scored four times and drove in four more in the win. Garrett also scored four times but drove in three, extending his hit streak to 14 games to open the season. It marked the eighth time in 14 games that Garrett has recorded three hits in a game. McAllister and Garrett led the game off with back-to-back triples.

Freshman Cody Brittain worked three innings on a pitch count to improve to 2-0. He scattered three hits with three strikeouts, walking two and allowing three runs, two earned.

The Fighting Owls take on Southern Maryland on Friday in a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.