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The University of Maine baseball team had another fruitful homestand, winning three out of four games over Binghamton University at Mahaney Diamond Saturday and Sunday.
First-year pitcher Greg Norton was the story in game one Sunday, tossing the first shutout of his career in an 8-0 Black Bear win. Norton struck out eight, walked two and scattered four hits to improve to 5-1 on the season.
Greg Creek drove in three runs on a two-run single and a sacrifice fly, and Alain Picard went 3-4 with a pair of runs batted in. UMaine (26-11, 9-3) erupted for seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Norton needed only the lone third-inning run.
The Black Bears’ penchant for big innings carried over into game two Sunday, scoring five runs in the third inning and seven runs in the fourth, en route to a 13-9 win.
Six UMaine players had at least two hits and Ryan Quintal drove in a career-high six runs, including a grand slam in the fourth.
Creek improved to 5-0 with the win, despite surrendering five earned runs in five innings. Binghamton (7-27, 1-11) scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning, but the Bearcats’ comeback bid came up short.
Home runs were the story at Mahaney Diamond Saturday, but the University of Maine baseball team was unable to post the doubleheader sweep of Binghamton University despite going yard five times.
UMaine hit three solo shots in the first game, but Binghamton picked up its first conference win in the opener, a 6-3 victory. The Black Bears came back in the second game, however, plating 12 runs on 14 hits for a 12-4 victory behind third-year Mike Collar’s 10 strikeouts and sixth win of the season.
The Black Bears took an early lead in the first game with a leadoff home run by senior Joe Drapeau to start the second inning. Drapeau connected twice in the game and Picard hit his fourth home run of the season in the sixth, but all three home runs came without baserunners.
Binghamton, on the other hand, tapped UMaine pitcher Mike MacDonald for four earned runs in 5 innings. MacDonald fell to 4-4, giving up seven hits and striking out six.
The Black Bears were not pleased with their execution in the first game and Drapeau said the team took time to regroup between games.
“We just came into the first game flat,” Drapeau said. “We came into the locker room and talked in between games and said we just needed to focus and bear down.”
The locker room talk paid off, but not before the Black Bears caught a scare when Binghamton’s leadoff hitter, Tony Berube, hit Collar’s first pitch of the game out of the park. Collar regrouped, retiring the next three batters, and the Black Bear offense wasted no time putting runs on the board.
After two quick outs in the home half of the first inning, Picard drew a two-out walk and Drapeau was hit by a pitch. A Binghamton error at second base would score Picard, and sophomore Creek followed with an RBI single to score Drapeau, giving UMaine a 2-1 lead.
The rest of the game belonged to the Black Bears, particularly the fifth inning, in which UMaine batted around and scored six runs.
With one out, Binghamton pitcher Jacob Thiel drilled second baseman Brett Ouellette with a pitch after retiring the leadoff batter. Picard followed up with a single to shallow left to put two runners on base for the cleanup hitter, Drapeau, who sent the ball over the fence on the first pitch for his third homer of the day.
Creek then extended the inning and the Black Bear lead to 11-1 when he belted a two-run homer which scored Izaryk, who reached base with a single after Drapeau had cleared the bases.
The Black Bears would add one more run in the fifth on a groundout RBI by freshman Steve Gambale.
The Bearcats were able to make a rally in the top of the seventh inning, collecting back-to-back hits and scoring two runs after head coach Paul Kostacopoulos pulled Collar in favor of sophomore Ryan Foley. After Lindsay reached base on a UMaine error, Foley gave up back-to-back hits to Berube and Smucker, but caught a break when Binghamton’s Jay Balback grounded into a double play to end the game.
The Black Bears will host non-conference matchups with Colby College of Waterville and the College of the Holy Cross on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. UMaine returns to America East action next weekend when it travels to the University of Albany for a four-game set.
Bangor Daily News