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Nearly four weeks ago, the University of Maine baseball team took to the Sunshine State to begin their season. Now two road trips and a 7-7 record later, the Black Bears are hoping that their visit to Florida is finally paying off.
On Saturday, the Black Bears traveled to New Jersey and collected a two-game split against Monmouth behind the sensational pitching of Steve Richard and the sweet swing of Ryan Quintal. With conference competition looming still three weeks away, the Garden State trip provided the squad with another chance to retool their skills.
UMaine head coach Paul Kostacopoulos believes his team still has a ways to go to reach the level they need to be at.
“I was disappointed with our pitching in the sense that we were just not sharp,” said Kostacopoulos. “We walked too many guys. We gave nine free passes in a game we lost by one run. So you can’t help but think that a few of those walks really hurt us.”
The game that Kostacopoulos touched upon, was a 8-7 defeat to Monmouth, the first of a Saturday doubleheader. In a game highlighted by counterattacks, the Black Bears were unable to hold onto a steady advantage for more than back-to-back innings.
“You got to find a way to win those games when you are scoring so many runs,” Kostacopoulos said. “It just wasn’t in the cards the first game.”
The Black Bears second decision of the doubleheader, featured a red hot Richard, who pitched a complete game shutout. Spearheading the 2-0 victory, Richard recorded a career-high nine strikeouts, while allowing three singles over seven innings. The complete game shutout was the first for a Black Bear this season.
“Steve Richard was outstanding,” Kostacopoulos said. “He threw the ball as well as he has thrown the ball for us. He has done that for us before where he has had a really dominating performance.”
“The umpire really had a tight, tight zone,” said Kostacopoulos, “so he wasn’t given anything.”
On Monday, Richard was named America East Pitcher of the Week.
“He had nine strikeouts, so in a seven-inning game when you strike out fifty percent of the people you are going to play a good defensive game,” Kostacopoulos said.
With the win Richard improved to 2-0 on the year. The talented hurler currently has a 2.13 earned run average and a team-high 22 strikeouts.
Kostacopoulos had nothing but high praise for the banner week from Richard.
“Anytime you can have less hits than innings pitched, about the same strikeouts as innings pitched, and your in the low twos era, your doing something good, especially in college,” Kostacopoulos said, “he is really throwing well for us.”
The weekend was highlighted by the play of hitting dynamo Ryan Quintal, who went 4-for-4 in UMaine’s opening loss. Quintal currently has a .383 average on 60 at-bats, while registering a team high 23 hits. Even more impressive is the sluggers RBI count which stands at 11.
Kostacopoulos believes Quintal’s early season emergence can be attributed to his off-season preparation.
“Ryan has done a very good job preparing himself for this season,” Kostacopoulos said. “He really took his swing and reconstructed it and it’s really paying off.”
“I give him a lot of credit for what he is doing right now,” said Kostacopoulos said.
The Black Bears also managed to get strong play from several pivotal position players on the weekend. A important factor that Kostacopoulos believes will go a long way in determining the Black Bear’s success this year.
“I don’t think you can gauge success in March,” Kostacopoulos said. “But if we are successful in May, we can thank the Matt McGraw’s, the Joe Hough’s, the Steve Gambale’s. If those guys pick it up, which they are more than capable of, we are going to have a solid lineup.”
McGraw is currently averaging .276 on the year, while Hough has posted a .232 mark. All three of the players Kostacopoulos mentioned have seen time in at least 10 games. Hough has seen the most time out of the three snatching 15 hits and 13 runs.
Kostacopoulos was happy with his teams improved defense over the weekend, something he felt needed adjustments after the spring break trip.
“Defensively we were much better,”Kostacopoulos said. “We made two errors, but it was a much better defensive effort.
“We did a ton of work defensively and it paid off. I think the players themselves were disappointed and embarrassed with how we play defense down in Florida.”
On Sunday the two foe’s third game was canceled due to poor weather in the fifth inning. Kostacopoulos believed the decision to call the game was the right call.
“I think the umpire did a smart thing, calling the game when no team is actually at an advantage or disadvantage,” Kostacopoulos said.
Kostacopoulos did feel the no-game held its own importance.
“The real good thing is it won’t show up in the stats or anything that we got Greg Creek four more innings in,” he said. “He threw 63 pitches, no runs again. He is still pretty hot for us.”
Creek, recovering from an injury to his shoulder has now seen time in 14 innings. His reemergence into the Black Bears rotation will play an integral role in the pitching staff’s success.
Leading the way in Creek’s absence is Greg Norton, who has a 3.10 ERA and hauled in 16 strikeouts on the year. Troy Martin has also seen considerable time from the rubber, registering a 1-2 record with a 9.77 ERA. Kostacopoulos believes the bloated ERA’s like Martins in the bullpen will go down in the coming weeks.
“They are just like position players, their command gets better and better as the year goes on,” Kostacopoulos said. “Sometimes you just don’t have the best outing and that is all there is to it.”
As a squad the UMaine pitchers have a 4.39 era.
At the plate, the Black Bears are averaging .302 with 149 hits and 73 RBI’s.
UMaine returns to action at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 26 against Harvard at New York Institute of Technology.
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