Maine pitcher Justin Courtney seen here in an earlier game this season against Albany, was the Bears starting pitcher in the championship round of the America East Tournament on Sunday. Photo by Chris Lessner.
The Maine baseball team knew they needed two wins against the same opponent on Sunday at LeLecheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts in order to capture the America East title. That opponent was the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
Maine broke the ice in the first game in the top of the first inning, as Christopher Bec lifted a sacrifice fly RBI to score Jeremy Pena and make it 1-0 Black Bears.
UMBC though tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly RBI of their own by Christian Torres to make it 1-1.
The Bears had their chances but left 12 men on base in the game. Jeff Gelinas, in relief of Justin Courtney after five innings, shut down a Retrievers threat in the bottom of the ninth inning with a huge strikeout to send the game to extras.
After Maine went down without anything across in the top of the 10th, Gelinas ran into some trouble in the bottom half. Mitchell Carroll led off with a walk, and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Andrew Casali. With two outs, Jamie Switalski drew a walk, and Maine opted to intentionally walk Hunter Dolshun to load the bases. Zack Bright then worked the bases loaded walk on four pitches, as the winning run came across to give UMBC the 2-1 win and their first ever America East baseball championship.
Maine offensively had 13 hits, outhitting UMBC 13-9. Pena had four hits (three singles and a double) and a run scored to lead the Bears, while Lou Della Fera had three hits. Brandon Vicens and Caleb Kerbs had two hits a piece as Maine ended their season at 25-29. Maine was 4-2 in the tournament, while UMBC was a perfect 3-0.
Gelinas was the tough luck loser on the mound for Maine. Gelinas (1-4) allowed just one earned run on four hits, with three strikeouts and five walks in 4.2 innings. Courtney allowed one earned run on seven hits, with two strikeouts and no walks in his five innings of work. Jacob Christian (5-3) worked the final two innings to pick up the win on the hill for UMBC, in relief of starter Mitchell Wilson and middle reliever Connor Staskey.
Pitchers Courtney and Nick Silva along with Pena were named to the All-Tournament team. Kerbs won the Elite 17 award which goes to the player with the highest GPA in the championship game.
UMBC (23-23), will head to Winston-Salem, North Carolina for a four team double elimination regional. UMBC will play host Wake Forest (39-18) at 7 p.m. Friday. Maryland and West Virginia are the other two teams in the regional field. All games can be seen live on ESPN 3 or the Watch ESPN app.
UME 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0- 1 13 0
UMBC 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1- 2 9 0
WP- Christian (5-3) LP- Gelinas (1-4)
Left on base- Maine 12, UMBC 9
Length of game- 2 hrs, 51 min
