ORONO- Freshman Caleb Leys pitched 6.0 innings of scoreless and no-hit baseball, while Joe Bramanti and Jeremiah Jenkins hit long homeruns during a six run third inning Saturday afternoon as the Maine baseball team made it eight straight wins with an 8-5 America East victory over UMass-Lowell at Mahaney Diamond.
With no score in the bottom of the third inning, Maine put together a rally against UMass-Lowell starting pitcher Ryan Towle. Connor Goodman, Jordan Schulefand, and Jeff Mejia all walked consecutively with one out. Quinn McDaniel then drove in Goodman with a sacrifice fly to centerfield. Bramanti stepped up and hit a no doubt three-run homerun that cleared the scoreboard in left field to make it 4-0. Scout Knotts followed with a single, and then Jenkins cleared the fence down the right field line by plenty for a two-run homer and a six run lead. The walks were the problem for the lefty Leys as he gave up seven free passes in his 6.0 innings of work, but avoided any trouble including stranding the bases loaded for the Riverhawks in the fifth. Knotts scored on a throwing error by catcher Ryan Proto to add another run on the board for the Black Bears in the bottom of the fifth. The visitors did put up a rally against Maine reliever Noah Lewis in the seventh to get back into the game. Robert Gallagher led off with a double, and then scored on a throwing error by shortstop Jake Marquez that allowed Roddy Hernandez to reach. Alex Luccini followed with an infield hit, and with one out Luccini scored on a passed ball. With two outs, Cedric Rose had an RBI single and Proto a two-run single to slice the margin to 7-5. The hosts would add an insurance run on a sacrifice RBI fly by Marquez in the bottom of the seventh, and then former Brewer High School standout Matt Pushard came on to pitch and silenced the UML bats to pick up the 2.0 inning save. Pushard allowed no runs and no hits with one walk and struck out five, and his fastball was regularly reaching speeds in the mid 90’s. Maine is now 18-14, 14-3 in America East.
Leys (2-1) would strike out six and earn the win. Pushard got his fifth save of the season. Bramanti and Jenkins had two hits each. Bramanti now has 49 RBI, good for 14th in the country. Towle (2-5) took the loss for UMass-Lowell allowing six runs on four hits in 3.0 innings. The Riverhawks were held to five hits, as they see their record drop to 15-22 (7-10 in America East). The win clinches another conference series win for Maine, as they will go for their fourth America East series sweep in 2022 in the finale on Sunday at 12 p.m.
UML 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0- 5 5 3
UME 0 0 6 0 1 0 1 0 x- 8 8 1
WP- Leys (2-1) LP- Towle (2-5) SV- Pushard (5)
HR- Bramanti (13), Jenkins (5)
2B- Bramanti, Gallagher
SB- Humphrey, Siracusa, Rose
LOB- Maine 10, UML 8
Photos are courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco
