Maine baseball got two key hits from Hunter St. Denis and Troy Carpenter in the seventh inning on Friday afternoon, getting past Albany 7-5 in America East action at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
The Black Bears scored five times to break out to a 5-1 lead in the third inning on a grandslam from Juju Stevens and a solo homer from Carpenter. The Great Danes would creep back into the game, eventually tying it in the top of the seventh on a two-run single from Jaxon Mueller. Stevens would reach with a one out walk in the last of the seventh for Maine. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, and would score when St. Denis came through with what turned out to be a game winning double. Carpenter followed to add another one to the scoreboard with a RBI single. Pierce Friedman (3-1) did the rest as he picked up the pitching win by tossing 2.1 innings of scoreless relief. Stevens scored two runs to add to his four RBI. Carpenter had two hits and two RBI. Mueller had three hits and three RBI in the loss for the Great Danes (15-32, 9-14 America East). The Black Bears (20-30, 13-10) will have an opportunity to finish second in the conference standings if they beat Albany on Saturday (1 p.m.) and UMBC loses their final game to NJIT. A second place finish would give them a bye and keep them out of a first round single elimination America East Tournament game next week in Vestal, New York.
Photos from UMaine Athletics
