UMaine sweeps Saturday set

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The University of Maine baseball team took both games of Saturday’s doubleheader against the University of Hartford, 4-1 and 2-1.

The Black Bears record now stands at 29-12, 10-4 in America East. Hartford dropped to 12-25, 4-10 with the pair of losses.

In the early game Saturday, the Hawks took the lead in the top of the first with a solo home run by Ron Accabo, but UMaine responded quickly, scoring four runs in the bottom half of the inning.

With the score tied after Simon Williams came in on a fielder’s choice, UMaine took advantage of a wild pitch and a hit batter to keep things going before Mike Livulpi’s two run single made it 4-1.

The potent 1-2 punch of Mike Collar and Mike MacDonald kept Hartford’s offense in check. Collar, 6-2 with the win, tossed a complete game, only allowing four hits while striking out six.

“He [Collar] was really working out there today,” UMaine coach Paul Kostacopolous said of Collar. “He went after them with one pitch, his fastball, and just stood out there and battled.”

The second game featured a pitching duel between Hartford’s Scott Roy (4-5) and MacDonald that forced both teams to scratch and claw for every chance.

After the Hawks managed to score a run in the top of the ninth with a suicide squeeze, they squandered a chance to bury the Black Bears, botching a key hit-and-run play. In the bottom of the ninth inning, after UMaine tied it at 1-1, Matt Reynolds came in when Hartford’s shortstop threw a sure double play ball into right field.

MacDonald took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning. He fanned nine in eight-and-a-third innings and surrendered just the one hit.

“You almost feel bad for the kid,” Kosty said of MacDonald after the game. “Sometimes your teammates can get a little too comfortable with the fact that you are going to go out and perform at such a high level. They know that they are only going to need a couple to win. That’s tough.”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 6th, 2002, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.