The Maine Black Bears picked up their first America East home baseball win of the season on Saturday afternoon, blanking the UMass-Lowell Riverhawks 10-0 by mercy rule in eight innings at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
In a scoreless game in the fourth inning, both teams had chances to break the ice. The Riverhawks had runners at second and third base with no outs in the top half of the frame, but Black Bears starting pitcher Caleb Leys struckout the next two batters and got a flyout to get out of the jam. Maine then had two runners in scoring position with one out in the bottom half, but Payton Whitehead struckout and Evan Menzel grounded out to second base. The hosts finally broke through in the fifth inning when Chris Bear had an RBI sacrifice fly, and with two outs Brody Rasmussen beat out a grounder to second for the infield RBI single to double the lead. The Black Bears added three more runs in the sixth when Myles Sargent singled in a run and a second baserunner also scored on the play on an error, and Zach Martin hit a pinch hit RBI double off the base of the wall in centerfield to make it 5-0. Maine ended it in the eighth inning when Dean O’Neill had a two-run single, Whitehead hit an RBI sacrifice fly, and Menzel knocked one in with a single to right.
Sargent had three hits in the win. Rasmussen, O’Neill, Whitehead, and Martin had two each. O’Neill and Whitehead added two RBI a piece. Leys (2-1) went 7.0 innings to pick up the victory on the mound allowing no runs on seven hits with two walks and nine strikeouts on 120 pitches. Maine is now 9-20 and 4-4 in America East. Brendan Holland (2-4) took the pitching loss for UMass-Lowell by giving up five runs on seven hits with one walk and eight strikeouts in 5.2 innings. The Riverhawks fall to 12-17 and 4-4 in the conference. The teams are scheduled to play the series finale weather permitting on Sunday at 12 p.m.
