Ryan Turenne had a two out RBI infield single to force extra innings, and then a walkoff RBI single in the 11th inning on Friday evening as the Maine Black Bears made it seven straight wins with a 4-3 victory over UMass-Lowell in the opener of a three game America East baseball series at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
Maine jumped on top in the bottom of the fourth inning of a scoreless game. Jordan Schulefand led off and reached on an error, was sacrificed to second base, but then was thrown out trying to steal third base by UMass-Lowell catcher Ryan Proto. With two outs Quinn McDaniel walked, and Joe Bramanti doubled to left center to score McDaniel for a 1-0 lead. Labonte didn’t allow a hit until Alex Luccini grounded a single to right field with two outs in the fifth. The Riverhawks took the lead in the sixth off Labonte when Gerry Siracusa singled with one out, Brandon Fish tripled to right to tie it, and Cedric Rose made it 2-1 with an RBI single to center. The Black Bears came right back in their half of the sixth when Connor Goodman walked and was sacrificed to second by Schulefand. Jeff Mejia singled to put runners on first and third, and McDaniel tied it back up with an RBI single to left.
The score remained the same until the top of the ninth inning. Proto hit a one out triple to right field, and then scored on a squeeze bunt by Fritz Genther to give UML back a one run lead at 3-2. Maine was down to their last out in the bottom half when Jermiah Jenkins hit a line drive to center that Siracusa tried to dive for, but had it go under his glove and roll to the fence. Jenkins made it all the way to third base. Turenne then tied it as he hit a liner to the first baseman Rose who couldn’t cleanly handle it, and Turenne beat the relay to the pitcher allowing pinch runner Dylan McNary to cross the plate to send it to the 10th. Neither team would threaten in the 10th inning. In the top of the 11th, Rose and Proto hit back to back singles with one out and Genther walked to load the bases. Black Bears reliever Colin Fitzgerald escaped though when he struck out Roddy Hernandez and Luccini both swinging to get out of the jam. McDaniel started the bottom half with a walk and Bramanti was hit with a pitch. After Scout Knotts moved the runners up with a sacrifice bunt, UMass-Lowell brought on Sal Fusco to pitch and he hit McNary to load the bases. Turenne came through with a groundball single to right to score McDaniel to end it.
Fitzgerald (1-2) got the win allowing just one run in 4.0 innings. Labonte would go the first 7.0 allowing two runs on four hits with three walks and eight strikeouts. Turenne had three hits and two RBI on the day. Siracusa, Rose, and Proto had two hits a piece for UMass-Lowell with Henry Funaro (0-1) taking the loss in relief. The Riverhawks fall to 15-21, 7-9 in America East. Maine is now 17-14, 13-3. The two teams meet in game two on Saturday at 1 p.m.
UML 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0- 3 8 1
UME 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1- 4 8 0
WP- Fitzgerald (1-2) LP- Funaro (0-1)
3B- Jenkins, Fish, Proto
2B- Bramanti, Turenne
LOB- UML 9, Maine 5
