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Black Bears fall to .500 after Stony Brook series

By Riley Donovan

Posted on Monday, April 5th, 2004, 12:00 am

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The University of Maine softball team picked up its play Sunday with a win over Stony Brook, 7-4. The Black Bears went into Sunday’s game after losing two games the day before, both on the road, to Stony Brook. Before Sunday, Stony Brook had won 10 straight games.

On Saturday Stony Brook swept the Black Bears with 4-3, and 2-0 wins. The road trip was supposed to begin in Thursday in Massachusetts but the double header against Massachusetts was postponed due to rain. It was their seventh game canceled or postponed on the season.

The weekend trip to New York opened the conference season for the Black Bears. In Saturday’s first game, the Black Bears took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh on a homer by Brittany Cheney. In the bottom of the inning a wild pitch by Candice Jaegge allowed Laura Bradford to score from third giving the Sea Wolves a 4-3 win. Jaegge took her fourth loss of the season.

Sarah Hoffman controlled the second game from the circle for the Sea Wolves, pitching a four-hit shutout. Stony Brook picked up two runs in the bottom of the sixth and Maine could not answer in the top of the seventh as Hoffman completed the shutout. Sarah Bennis, who has been strong thus far in the season despite a poor record, pitched five scoreless innings, and allowed just three hits. She took the loss however, dropping her season record to 2-7.

On Sunday, the teams wrapped up their three-game set. After taking a 1-0 lead, off of an RBI single by Erin Provost the Black Bears gave up two solo home runs to fall behind 2-1 in the bottom of the first. The Black Bears took the lead again in the top of the second, this time for good. Stony Brook cut the lead to 4-3, but Maine added a run in the fourth and two runs in the fifth to take a 7-3 lead. They went on to win 7-4.

Lauren Dulkis, who plays third base, had three RBIs, while Jessica Brady had three hits, an RBI and a run.

Jaegge pitched five innings allowing six hits and three runs, and picked up the win, improving her record to 8-4. Sarah Bennis pitched two innings for Maine allowing one hit and one earned run.

Maine took one out of three from the Sea Wolves. Their record now stands at .500, with a 13-13 mark. They are 1-2 in the conference. Stony Brook is now 13-18 overall and 2-1 in conference play.

The Black Bears play their home opener on Friday, April 9 in a double header against Binghamton beginning at 2 p.m. They follow up Friday’s game with a game at noon on the following day also in Orono.