The Maine Black Bears baseball team cruised past the Binghamton Bearcats in single games on Saturday and Sunday to complete the America East weekend sweep at the Binghamton Baseball Stadium Complex in Vestal, New York.
On Saturday, the Maine offense exploded for 19 runs and 22 hits in a 19-9 victory. The Black Bears scored four runs in the first, fourth, and sixth inning and added five more in the seventh. Joe Bramanti, Ryan Turenne, Jake Marquez had homeruns and Quinn McDaniel had two. Jake Rainess had five hits and two RBI, McDaniel four hits and two RBI, Turenne three hits and four RBI, while Jordan Schulefand and Jeremiah Jenkins also had two RBI each. Caleb Leys started on the mound and allowed five runs on four hits with three walks and seven strikeouts in 4.0 innings. Former Brewer High standout Matthew Pushard (1-1) got the win in relief allowing three runs on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts on 3.0 innings. Christian Perez had three RBI in the loss for Binghamton, while Connor Aoki and Andrew Tan had two a piece. John Lumpinski (0-5) took the pitching loss allowing eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits in 3.1 innings.
On Sunday, Maine got some early runs to break on top and got a solid pitching performance from Schulefand to sweep the weekend with a 7-1 win. The Black Bears got an RBI groundout from Bramanti and McDaniel scored on a wild pitch in the top of the first inning to make it 2-0. Maine increased that to 5-0 in the second on a Marquez RBI single and a two-run hit from Jeff Mejia. Bramanti later added his sixth homerun of the season, a two-run shot to right center. Mejia had three hits and Marquez had two, while Bramanti finished with three RBI. Schulefand (2-1) picked up the pitching win allowing one run on four hits with seven walks and five strikeouts in 6.0 innings of work. Cavan Tully had the lone RBI for Binghamton, as the Bearcats fall to 3-13 and 0-3 in America East. Ryan Bryggman (1-2) suffered the loss allowing seven runs on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts in 4.0 innings. Maine scored 37 runs on 41 hits, including 20 extra base hits (nine homeruns) in the series.
Maine is now 6-11, 3-0 in America East and will open home play with three games in Orono next weekend at Mahaney Diamond against Stony Brook. The opener is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Friday. The Seawolves, who are not eligible for postseason play because they are leaving the league, swept UMass-Lowell over the weekend and enter play with the Black Bears at 7-11 (3-0 AE).
