The Maine baseball team was at home again Sunday afternoon trying to finish off an America East weekend sweep, while softball was playing as the home team again at Hartford trying to salvage one game of the three game series.
In Orono at Mahaney Diamond, eight different Maine Black Bears had hits and Cody Laweryson had a solid start on the mound as Maine took a 5-1 win over UMass-Lowell to finish off the three game sweep.
A UML throwing error allowed Maines Danny Casals to score from first base in the bottom of the first to make it 1-0. Casals did it with his bat in the third with a two run double down the right field line to pad the Bears lead to 3-0. Hernen Sardinas made it 4-0 in the fourth when he reached on a fielders choice for an RBI allowing Jake Roper to score. Maine added an unearned run off a Riverhawks error in the fifth, before Robert Gallagher got UML on the board in the eighth with an RBI single.
Laweryson (2-3) allowed no runs, four hits, with one walk, and eight strikeouts in 7.0 innings. Joe Bramanti and Jeffrey Omohundro each had two hits. Joshua Becker (1-3) took the loss for UMass-Lowell allowing three runs, five hits, with four walks, and three strikeouts in 3.0 innings of work. Gallagher had two of the six Riverhawk hits. Maine goes to 7-22 overall, 6-5 in America East. The Bears will host UMass in a four game non-conference series beginning Friday at 4 pm with a single game. UML falls to 7-26, 4-8.
At West Hartford, Connecticut Emily Reid threw a complete game in the circle for her third win of the season, and Maine took an early 4-0 lead in securing their second America East win with a 5-2 victory over Hartford.
Alyssa Derrick had an RBI single, and Keely Clark scored on a wild pitch in the first inning to make it 2-0 Maine. Laurine Germain extended the lead to 4-0 with a second inning two run single. Amanda Nee added a sacrifice fly for an RBI in the third to end the scoring for the Bears. The Hawks got a pair back in the fourth when Emma Curry had an RBI single, and Hartford scored another on a Black Bear error on the play. That is as close as the Hawks would come however as Maine salvages one game of the three game conference weekend.
Reid (3-9) went 7.0 innings allowing two runs (none earned), five hits, with two walks, and two strikeouts. Clark had two hits for Maine, while five others had one hit a piece. Haley Cassidy had a pair of hits for the Hawks, while Julianna Kocenski (9-13) took the loss as she figured into all three of the weekend pitching decisions for the Hawks. She allowed four runs, four hits, with three walks in 1.2 innings on Sunday. Maine improves to 9-22, 2-7 in America East. The Bears host Holy Cross in their home opener on Thursday at 2 pm for a non-conference doubleheader. The team has played the first 31 of their 42 regular season contests all away from Orono. Maine as of now is only scheduled to play nine home games at Kessock Field. Hartford is now 15-22, 3-8.
