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The University of Maine baseball team experienced a tale of two games Saturday. The Black Bears tangoed with the New York Institute of Technology, split the first doubleheader on the weekend, after two drastically different decisions. Maine used an offensive explosion to convincingly win the first match 8-1, but fell one run short of a dramatic comeback in the second contest of the day. The Black Bears lost 7-6 after using a frantic rally to pull close in the seventh inning.
In the first game, Maine got a quick jump out of the gates as the team loaded the bases with no outs in the opening frame. However, NYIT starting pitcher Andrew Karkoulas settled down and allowed merely one run in the inning off a Joe Hough sacrifice fly. The play scored Ryan Quintal and gave the Black Bears an advantage they never surrendered. Maine increased its early lead in the third when Mike Ferriggi started a three-run spurt by singling home Greg Creek. The Black Bears collected two runs on the play after Simon Williams scored on a throwing error from NYIT left-fielder Christian Diez. The scoring was capped off after Aaron Izaryk’s groundout drove home Ferriggi the inning’s third run.
Maine’s offensive assault climaxed in the fourth after the Black Bears tallied four runs. The inning was highlighted by a Ferriggi double and a Quintal RBI single that gave Maine an insurmountable lead. Ferriggi finished the day 2 for 4, with two RBI’s and two runs scored. The game progressed with senior Ronny Reyes recording the only NYIT run on the day in the fifth inning after smashing his first homerun of the season. The Black Bears headed to the clubhouse with their 11th victory on the year, largely due to their timely hitting and the pitching of senior Mike McDonald, who improved to 2-0 on the season, pitching his first complete game of the year. McDonald recorded one run on six hits with four strikeouts along the way.
In the second game, NYIT jumped on Maine starter Greg Norton quickly, snatching five runs on Norton through the first three innings. This time it was NYIT who used the bats to attack the Black Bears in the first inning. Freshman Kraig Binick and senior Jelani Arnold led off with back to back singles. Karkoulas was then walked to load the bases. With the bases loaded it was then Tim Smith of NYIT who provided the game with its first score, as he hit into a double play that scored Binick. The offensive attack concluded with Arnold stealing home and scoring on a double steal. The Bears of NYIT added to their advantage in the second after an RBI single from Binick and an RBI double from Arnold. NYIT’s success at the plate gave them an early lead of 4-0 at the end of the second inning.
Joe Hough gave the Black Bears their first glimmer of a comeback in the fourth after a decisive homerun, which trimmed the NYIT advantage to 5-2. However, it didn’t take long for NYIT to respond, as the Bears added two insurance runs in the sixth by freshman Joe Esposito and Binick. The late barrage of runs from NYIT had pushed the lead back to a daunting 7-2 score.
Maine, however, still had one last trick left and staged one of the more exciting endings to a contest this season in the top of the seventh inning. The rally began with three consecutive singles that seemed to foreshadow the approaching storm of runs from the Black Bears. Maine then tallied its first run of the rally after Joel Barrett’s sacrifice fly scored Izaryk. Quintal followed up the score with a double that brought home Ross Cantara and more importantly brought the exit of NYIT starter Jon Burke. Simon Williams followed Quintal by giving NYIT reliever Robert Benanati a warm welcome into the decision by slicing a single into the outfield and cutting the deficit to 7-5. Maine trimmed the deficit even closer when Quintal scored on a wild pitch from Jamie Roggenkamp, Benanati’s replacement. It would be the last blemish on the scorecard for Roggenkamp, who collected the last outs in an impressive fashion to earn his first save of the season.
The two teams split another doubleheader Sunday in New York with Maine falling 5-1 in the first game and winning the second, 3-0. The weekend pushed the Black Bears to 12-9 on year, while it dropped NYIT to 6-10 on the season. For Maine, a young team, the weekend was filled with an assortment of ups and downs, a trait that has plagued the team in the early part of the season.
Bangor Daily News