The Maine baseball team opened up America East play and their home schedule on Saturday afternoon with two wins by scores of 4-1 and 10-2 over UMBC at Mahaney Diamond in Orono. It was the first time since May 22, 2019 that they’ve played at home.
In game one, Nicholas Sinacola continued his early season brilliance on the mound for the Black Bears with his third win in as many outings. Maine got all the offense they needed in the fourth inning when Jake Marquez hit an RBI sacrifice fly, Colin Plante also had an RBI groundout that also turned into an error that scored another run, and Jeff Mejia capped off a four run inning with an RBI double. Sinacola (3-0) did the rest, striking out 16 batters and coming one short of tying the school record of 17 set by Billy Swift (1984) and Jeff Plympton (1986). He allowed one run on four hits with only one walk in the complete game effort. Christian Meceda produced the lone UMBC run with a one out solo homer in the top of the fifth. Sinacola now has 39 strikeouts in 19.2 innings pitched so far this season.
In game two, the Maine bats came alive on yet another strong pitching performance from a Black Bear starter. Sean Lawlor had three hits, while Plante and Mejia had two each and two RBI a piece. The hosts broke it open with four runs in the second inning, and three more in the third to take a 7-0 lead. Noah Lewis (2-1) won on the mound allowing no runs on just two hits with two walks and eight strikeouts in 7.0 innings. Luke Johnson provided a ninth inning solo homerun for UMBC, while another run scored in the ninth unearned on an error. Maine is now 7-3 overall with also starts 2-0 in America East. UMBC drops to 6-5 and 1-5 in the conference.
Originally planned as a four game series, the teams have now opted to play a single nine inning game on Sunday at 11 a.m. due to predicted inclement afternoon weather.
