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First appeared April 28, 2003
Homeruns 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 Alain Picard hit his fourth home run of the season in the sixth, but all three homeruns came without baserunners.
Binghamton, on the other hand, tapped UMaine pitcher Mike MacDonald for four earned runs in five 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 Greg Creek followed with an RBI single to score Drapeau, giving UMaine a 2-1 lead.
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. But sophomore reliever Ryan Foley induced a double-play to end the game.
Bangor Daily News