Caleb Leys pitched a brilliant 8.0 innings on Friday afternoon, and Jeremiah Jenkins hit a game winning two-run homerun in the sixth inning as the Maine Black Bears defeated UMBC 3-1 in a semifinal game of the America East Baseball Tournament at Bearcat Baseball Complex in Vestal, New York. Maine moves into the Championship Round on Saturday afternoon.
The Black Bears had a chance to break onto the scoreboard first in the bottom of the opening inning. Jake Rainess led off with a double, stole third base, and Quinn McDaniel followed with a walk. UMBC escaped any damage though when Jenkins popped to shortstop, McDaniel was caught stealing, and Connor Goodman flied out to centerfield. The Retrievers would score the first run of the afternoon in the third when Anthony Swenda led off with a solo homerun over the scoreboard in left. Maine evened it up when McDaniel hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield to drive in Jake Marquez who had led off with a double. Maine took over the lead for good in the sixth inning when McDaniel drew a leadoff walk, and then the America East Player of the Year in Jenkins parked the game winner with a two-run homer to right on a 1-0 pitch to make it 3-1. The longball was the 19th on the year for the first baseman. They had a chance to add on with the bases loaded and one out, but UMBC was able to get Marquez to ground into a doubleplay to get out of it. They would spoil another chance to get more separation as they would load the bases again with one out in the seventh, but Goodman and Nick White both struckout swinging. The pitching was enough to quiet the Retrievers bats though, as Leys went his 8.0 innings and Justin Baeyens worked a perfect seven pitch ninth inning to earn the save.
The sophomore Leys (5-0) only allowed the one run on four hits along with two walks and eight strikeouts, in what was his best start of the season at the biggest time. Baeyens earned his eighth save. Colin Plante had two hits as top seeded Maine (31-19) has now won six straight games. Swenda had two hits and the lone RBI for the #2 seed UMBC (30-26), and Jayden Shertel (5-5) suffered the defeat on the mound allowing two earned runs on five hits in 5.1 innings. The Retrievers had their season end in an elimination game Friday evening. The Black Bears are now on to the Championship Round beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Maine needs just one win out of a possible two games to win their first title since 2011. Their opponent will be #3 Binghamton (29-22), who will need to win twice to steal the championship.
Recap and photo by Chris Lessner/Video courtesy of Maine Baseball on Twitter
Photo- Maine sophomore Caleb Leys delivers a pitch during a game earlier this season at Mahaney Diamond in Orono. Leys went 8.0 innings allowing just one run on four hits on Friday as the Black Bears advanced to the America East Championship with a 3-1 semifinal win over UMBC
Box Score
UMBC 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0- 1 4 1
UMAI 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 x- 3 6 0
WP- Leys (5-0) LP- Shertel (5-5) SV- Baeyens (8)
2B- Maine: Rainess, Marquez, Plante/UMBC: none
HR- Maine: Jenkins (19)/UMBC: Swenda (10)
SB- Maine: Rainess/UMBC: none
E- Maine: none/UMBC: Diaz
LOB- Maine: 9/UMBC: 3
Time- 2:15
JERRY HAS LEFT THE YARD!!!
His 19TH LONG BALL OF THE SEASON!!
3-1 Black Bears!!#blackbearnation | #wineverything | #AEBase pic.twitter.com/QaBQcuoNnI
— Maine Baseball (@MaineBaseball) May 26, 2023
