The University of Maine baseball team suffered their first America East Conference series loss over the weekend, before salvaging the final game on Sunday with UMBC st Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
On Saturday- UMBC rallied in the ninth inning with three runs to steal a 9-8 victory over Maine. The Black Bears had a pair of two run leads in the game, but couldn’t hold them. It was 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth when Myles Sargent hit a two-run homerun to make it 3-1 Maine. UMBC came storming back to take leads of 5-3 and 6-5, before Jake Rainess on an 0-2 pitch with two outs in the bottom of the eighth hit a no doubt three-run homer to left centerfield and the hosts had their two run advantage back 8-6. Justin Baeyens, who was in line for a win in relief, struggled in the ninth. Baeyens walked the lead off hitter Anthony Swenda, before Dawson Baracani singled through the right side of the infield, and Christian Easley laid down a perfect bunt that ended up as a hit to load the bases. Justin Taylor reached on a RBI fielders choice that scored Swenda, Tony Krueger singled to tie it, and Ian Diaz walked to load the bases again. Luc Lavigueur came in to pitch and gave up an RBI sacrifice fly to Leewood Molessa to push the Retrievers in front. The Black Bears went down 1-2-3 in the bottom half as Connor Kelly earned his seventh save. Rainess led the way in the loss with his three RBI, while Sargent had two. Baeyens (2-3) was tagged with the defeat giving up four runs on six hits in 2.2 innings, after starter Noah Lewis allowed five runs on six hits in 5.2 innings of work. Nick Remy (4-5) was credited with the win in relief for UMBC, as Taylor and Krueger had two RBI a piece.
On Sunday- Gianni Gambardella fired 7.0 innings of scoreless baseball, and Maine put it away by tallying four runs in the sixth inning to take the final game of the series 9-0. Sargent gave the Black Bears the only offense they ended up needing with an RBI single in the first. The score stayed the game until the sixth. With two outs, Rainess hit a two-run single and then McDaniel nailed one out to the fence in left centerfield that got away from the UMBC outfielder Taylor. McDaniel came all the way around to score on the inside the park two-run homerun. Gambardella (5-2) allowed no runs on five hits with two walks and three strikeouts to earn the victory on the mound. Sargent had three hits, while Rainess and McDaniel had two each. Rainess and McDaniel also drove in two a piece in that sixth inning. Joe Pucek (2-3) took the loss on the hill for UMBC giving up three runs on five hits in 5.0 innings. The Retrievers record is now 24-21, 13-8 in America East.
Maine is 24-17 and 14-4 in conference play. The Black Bears play a non-conference game at Merrimack College on Wednesday, and then open up a three game America East series at NJIT on Friday.
Recaps by Chris Lessner
