The Maine baseball team fell into a 6-0 hole in the third inning Sunday afternoon, but rallied with nine runs over the final six innings to take the rubber game of a three game America East series 9-8 over Stony Brook at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
Stony Brook (25-19, 14-7 America East) came out swinging. Chris Hamilton hit a solo homer in the first, and Dylan Resk doubled in a run to make it 2-0. John Tuccillo then hit a solo homer in the second and Hamilton had an RBI groundout to extend to a 4-0 lead, before Resk scored on an attempted stolen base at second in the third and Sean Buckhout hit a fielders choice RBI to give the Seawolves a 6-0 advantage.
Hernen Sardinas started a Maine comeback with a solo homer in the bottom of the third. In the fourth Colin Ridley hit an RBI single, Kevin Doody walked with the bases loaded, and Jeffrey Omohundro hit an RBI groundout to cut it to 6-4. Buckhout regained a three run SBU lead with an RBI double in the fifth. That was short lived though, as the Black Bears tied it in the bottom half when Caleb Kerbs was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Doody hit a two run single to make it 7-7. Sardinas gave Maine their first lead of the day with his second solo homer of the game in the sixth. Buckhout came back with a sacrifice fly to tie the game again in the seventh at 8-8. Sardinas though reached on a fielders choice in the bottom of the seventh allowing Ryan Turenne to score what turned out to be the winning run. The Seawolves had a chance in their final at bat against Bears closer Trevor Delaite in the top of the ninth. Brandon Alamo led off and was hit by a pitch, then was sacrificed to second on a bunt by Resk. Delaite though would strike out Johnny Decker and get Tuccillo to fly out to end it.
Sardinas had two hits and three RBI on the day to spark the Bears offense. Peter Kemble (3-5) got credit for the win in relief allowing two runs on three hits in 4.0 innings. Delaite picked up his fifth save of the season allowing no runs or hits over the final 2.0 innings. Resk had three hits for the Seawolves, while Decker and Tuccillo had two a piece. Sam Turcotte (4-1) suffered his first pitching loss allowing one run and one hit in 2.0 innings.
Maine improves to 13-27, 9-8 in America East by taking two of three from the top team in the conference. The Black Bears are in third in America East and travel to Hartford for a three game series to play the fourth seeded Hawks next weekend.
