Maine scored four times in the third inning on Friday evening and built a 7-2 lead, and would go on to defeat Bryant 11-5 in game two of an America East baseball series at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
The Bulldogs scored right away to take the early advantage by grabbing a run off Gianni Gambardella in their first at bat, but the Black Bears took the lead for good by pushing across two in the last of the second on a Brody Rasmussen infield single that went for a RBI and a sacrifice RBI flyout to centerfield by Nic Pepe. They broke it open with that four run third as Hunter St. Denis hit a two-run double, Jack Quigley had a sacrifice fly that scored a run, and Chris Bear singled to left to drive in another to make it 6-1. Bryant forced Gambardella out of the game in the seventh and cut their deficit to 7-5. Maine added a single run in the bottom half of the frame, and three in the eighth to put it away including a triple by Juju Stevens who scored on an error on the same play and a two-run double by Bear.
Casey Wensley and Carlos Irizarry had two hits a piece to lead the Bryant offense. Owen Birchard was tagged in the pitching loss allowing four earned runs in 2.0+ innings. The Bulldogs drop to 17-11 and 5-3 in America East. Bear was the offensive leader in the game as he had five hits and three RBI for Maine in the victory. Stevens had three hits and one RBI, while Rasmussen and St. Denis had two hits and two RBI each. Gambardella (3-3) picked up the win on the mound as he gave up four runs on seven hits with three walks and six strikeouts in 6.0+ innings. Sebastian Holt got his second save. The Black Bears get back to .500 in conference play at 4-4 (6-22 overall). The teams play the rubber game on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Photo courtesy of UMaine Athletics.
