Maine baseball entered their second week of America East play on Friday afternoon by hosting the Binghamton Bearcats at Mahaney Diamond in Orono for a doubleheader to kick off a four game weekend series.
In game one, Maine starting pitcher Nicholas Sinacola continued his early season brilliance by throwing a complete 7.0 inning shutout in a 2-0 Black Bears win. The hosts got all they needed in the bottom of the first inning on a Sean Lawlor RBI single, and on an error that allowed Jeff Mejia to score. Once again the rest was all Sinacola. The junior right hander improved to 4-0, allowing no runs on three hits with just two walks and 15 strikeouts. The North Attleboro, Massachusetts native has a 1.01 earned run average so far this season, allowing just three earned runs on 12 hits with 54 strikeouts in 26.2 innings pitched. He has held his opponents to a .132 batting average.
In game two, Binghamton was able to pick up the afternoon split with an 8-3 win. Maine was down 3-0 into the bottom of the fourth. The Bears would rally when Joe Bramanti had an RBI single and Ryan Turrene an RBI groundout to cut it to 3-2. They tied it when Bramanti hit a sacrifice fly for an RBI in the sixth. The Bearcats took over late in the game when TJ Wegmann had a bases loaded walk, and Daniel Franchi had a two run single in the eighth to make it 6-3. In the ninth, Jake Evans had a bases loaded walk and Wegmann had an infield RBI single to end the scoring. Noah Lewis started on the hill for Maine and got a no decision allowing two earned run on six hits in 6.0 innings. Colton Corson (0-1) was tagged with the loss allowing three runs with four walks in 1.2 innings. Lawlor, Scout Knotts, and Connor Goodman each had two hits.
Maine is now 8-5, 3-2 in America East. Binghamton is 3-5, 3-5. A doubleheader is scheduled on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.
