Freshman Troy Carpenter hit a ninth inning game winning two-run homerun on Friday night, as Maine rallied from a 3-0 deficit and defeated New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) 5-3 in America East baseball action at Yogi Berra Stadium in Little Falls, New Jersey.
The Highlanders would lead 3-0 after scoring a single run in the first, third, and fourth inning. Lorenzo Camilleri tripled in the first off Black Bears starter Jason Krieger and scored on a single by Rowin O’Connor, while Conner Rippo provided a RBI single in the third, and in the fourth Ty Sallie scored on a passed ball. Maine chipped away with a pair of runs in the fifth inning on a Nick Pepe RBI single and a sacrifice flyout by Quinn Murphy to bring in Brody Rasmussen. Chris Bear tied it when he scored on a passed ball in the seventh inning, and the contest remained tied to the ninth. With two outs, Murphy singled to keep the inning alive for the Black Bears and Carpenter followed by taking a 1-2 pitch over the right centerfield fence for his team-leading 10th homerun of the year. In the last chance for NJIT, Camilleri drew a leadoff walk against reliever Pierce Friedman. Maine turned to the bullpen again going to Sebastian Holt to try to close it out and he did just that by setting down the next three batters with back to back strikeouts and a flyout to end it.
Cole Campbell had two hits in the loss for NJIT. Brandon Peterson (0-3) took the defeat on the mound in relief allowing two runs on two hits in 2.2 innings. The Highlanders fall to 12-20 and 3-10 in America East. Murphy led Maine in hits with three while driving in one, while Pepe, Carpenter, Bear, and Rasmussen had two hits a piece with Carpenter coming up with his huge two RBI on the timely homer. The team leads America East with 40 homeruns total. Bear scored two runs. Friedman (2-1) got the win in relief of Krieger not giving up any runs or hits with three walks and three strikeouts in 4.0+ innings. Holt picked up his third save. The Black Bears have won five of their last six conference games and improve to 10-23 overall and 6-4 in league play. Game two of the three game weekend series is Saturday night at 6 p.m.
Photo of Carpenter from UMaine Athletics
