The baseball and softball teams from the University of Maine continued their annual winter Southern swing of non-conference games over the weekend. The baseball team was in Virginia facing Liberty University, while softball was in Texas facing a pair of teams in University of Missouri-Kansas City and Abilene Christian University.
The Maine baseball team dropped three games over the weekend at Liberty University, losing the first game of a doubleheader Saturday 7-0, before dropping a close 3-2 decision. On Sunday, the Bears came up on the shortend of a 7-1 score in a weather shortended seven inning loss. Maine is now 0-10 on the season.
In the first game Saturday- Kaleb Kerbs had two hits, and Hernen Sardinas, Danny Casals, Colin Ridley, and Jake Roper added a hit a piece in the loss. Former Bangor High standout Peter Kemble (0-2) took the loss on the mound, allowing two runs, four hits, with four walks in 2.2 innings. Logan Mathieu led the Flames with an RBI double and two run single, and Jonathan Embry added a solo homer to help the hosts to the win.
In the second game Saturday- Liberty build a 2-0 third inning lead behind a solo homer from Mathieu, and a sacrifice fly from Will Wagner, but Maine would come back to tie the game before the Flames scored a run in the seventh inning for a 3-2 win.
Joe Bramanti and Jeffrey Omohundro both had fourth inning RBI doubles to tie the score for the Bears. A bases loaded walk would push the winning run across to Liberty in the bottom of the seventh. Garret Price (1-1) set Maine down in the eighth and ninth innings pretty quietly to pick up the pitching win for Liberty. The Bears only had three hits, with the other coming from Sardinas. Another former Bangor Ram Trevor Delaite (0-1) took the pitching loss in relief of Nick Silva, allowing one run, one hit, with four strikeouts in 3.1 innings.
In Sundays game- Liberty jumped to a 4-0 lead and cruised to the weekend sweep with a 7-1 win, allowing just two Black Bear hits.
Wagner and Tyler Galazin both had a pair of RBI for the Flames, who improve to 8-3 on the season. Casals and Cody Pasic had the Maine hits, with Pasic recording the lone RBI with a sacrifice fly in the seventh. The game was called off after seven innings because of rain. Ben Terwilliger (0-1) took the pitching loss for the Black Bears, allowing two runs, five hits, with two walks, and one strikeout in 3.0 innings of work.
Maine has eight games remaining in the non-conference swing of games, with visits to the states of Mississippi and Alabama before opening up conference play at Binghamton on March 23. The Bears visit Mississippi State Friday at 7:30 pm to open up a three game series with the Bulldogs.
Maine softball lost three of four games on the weekend, but did record their second win in Abilene, Texas.
In the opener of a doubleheader Friday, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Roos bombarded the Black Bears with three players who had two RBI each in a 7-0 win over Maine.
Madason Shaw, Margan Rollow, and Bre Hunter all had two RBI each in the win for the Roos, and Mia Hoveland did it in the circle in the complete game effort, holding the Bears to just two hits with eight strikeouts. Laurine German and Kelby Drews had the Maine hits, while Emily Reid (0-2) took the pitching loss allowing two runs and five hits over 2.0 innings.
In the second game Friday, the hosts of Abilene Christian broke open a close game with a six run third inning for a 9-2 win over Maine.
After trailing 2-0 after two innings, Germain got the Bears on the board in the third with an RBI double to cut the deficit to 2-1. But the hosts got run scoring hits by Kayla Keeling and Anna Grace Johnson, as well as two runs off Maine errors and an RBI sacrifice fly to put a six spot on the board in the bottom of the third to make it 8-1. Brianna Neely had two hits, and Grace McGouldrick, Drews, Rebecca Findley, and Keely Clark added single hits for the Black Bears. Gabbie Siciliano (0-2) took the loss in the circle allowing four runs, four hits, with two walks, and three strikeouts in 2.0 innings.
On Saturday, Maine got single runs in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings to defeat the Missouri-Kansas City Roos 5-4 for their second win of the season in the first game of the day.
The Roos had built a 4-1 lead in the fifth inning behind a Hunter RBI single and a two run triple from Chyanne Onstad who also stole home after the triple. The Bears got two back when Meghan Royle hit an RBI sacrifice fly, and Clark had an RBI single to make it 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth. Hailey Perry tied the game with a solo homer in the sixth inning. Emma Larke scored the walk off win in the bottom of the seventh when Makayla Livingston laid down a squeeze bunt for the game winner. Lily Volk (2-2) got the win in the circle in relief for Maine, not allowing a run and three hits in 2.1 innings. Perry, Shanna Scribner, Royle, Clark, and Drews all had two hits a piece to lead the 11 hit attack.
Maine couldn’t keep the momentum from a win though, as the hosts from Abilene Christian took it to the Bears again for another 9-2 win in the second game Saturday.
Maine did take a 2-0 lead in the top of the second for their only runs of the game, when Amanda Nee hit a two run double. A bases loaded walk cut the Maine lead to 2-1 in the bottom half, and then three runs by ACU in the bottom of the third put the hosts in control led by two Black Bear errors. Abilene Christian added a pair in the bottom of the fourth, and then three in the sixth to put it away. Linsey Tomlinson hit a three run homer for the winners. Neely had two hits for Maine. Reid (0-3) took her second pitching loss of the weekend, allowing two runs on five hits in 3.0 innings.
Maine is now 2-7 on the season, and still has 18 games left to play on the non-conference road trip. The Bears head to Kansas and Tenneessee, before coming back East to play several different opponents starting March 23. The conference opener is at UMass-Lowell on March 30. Maine will play the University of Missouri-Kansas City twice again this weekend, as well as two with the Kansas Jayhawks with all games at the Jayhawks campus in Lawrence, Kansas.
