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The regular season goal for the University of Maine baseball team is to finish the America East Conference with the top record. The reward would be hosting the conference tournament in late May with the winner advancing to the NCAA Regional.
In their second week of conference play, the Black Bears have put themselves in a good position to battle for the top spot, sweeping a four-game series from the University of Maryland Baltimore County at Mahaney Diamond.
The Black Bears, now 24-13 overall and 7-1 in America East, played stellar defense and received strong performances from their starting pitchers to run their winning steak to six games and take sole possession of first place in the conference.
“Everybody really wants to win this year,” said senior outfielder Billy Cather. “We really know that we’re better than these teams, and we can beat anybody out there. That started with UNLV when we were out there, and when we beat Ohio State we knew we could beat good team.”
UMaine won Saturday’s games 6-1 and 7-3, and followed on Sunday with an 11-5 and 5-4 victory. UMBC falls to 5-26 overall and 1-11 in the conference.
In Sunday’s second game, sophomore Jarrett Lukas hit a go-ahead solo home run to left field in the eighth inning to propel the Black Bears to the win.
UMaine jumped out to a 4-0 lead early in the game, but UMBC fought back to tie it in the seventh inning. Rick Phillips hit a game-tying grand slam off of sophomore right-hander Matt Jebb. Jebb had cruised through the first six innings, but the first three batters in the seventh reached before Phillips’ home run.
In the eighth, Lukas led off and took a 3-2 fastball to left field off of Travis Pearson to give UMaine the lead.
Jebb (6-1) picked up the win, going eight strong innings, allowing four runs on five hits. He struck out four and walked only one batter. Freshman right-hander Keith Bilodeau picked up his first save of the season.
Leading the offense was Lukas with the home run and Ian Leisenheimer with three hits.
In game one Sunday, freshman right-hander Pat Quinn had a no-hitter through five innings and senior outfielder Kevin McAvoy went 4-for-4 at the plate as the Black Bears cruised to the 11-5 win.
In the first inning, UMaine scored twice and never relinquished the lead. Cather hit an RBI single to knock in senior Danny Menendez and junior Myckie Lugbauer hit a sacrifice fly to give the Black Bears a 2-0 lead.
UMBC picked up an unearned run in the fourth, but UMaine scored two runs in the fourth and fifth innings, and five crossed the plate in the sixth.
Quinn (5-0) had trouble with his command during the contest, walking seven, but he struck out seven and didn’t allow a hit until the leadoff batter in the sixth inning. He allowed only two earned runs on three hits.
McAvoy knocked in four runs in the game, and Cather and Ian Leisenheimer both had three hits apiece to lead the offense.
In Saturday’s first game, sophomore left-hander Jonathan Balentina fired his second complete game of the season, allowing just one unearned run, and was aided by five Black Bear double plays to pick up the win.
“That’s something I’ve talked about,” Trimper said. “We’ve been doing that all year, and I know we’re on pace to break the record. We work so hard at turning double plays in practice. That [was] the difference.”
UMBC jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI groundout, but UMaine responded in the bottom half on an RBI single for Cather. It was Cather’s 200th career hit.
In the third inning, the Black Bears took the lead for good, pushing across two runs on an RBI groundout by Ian Leisenheimer and an RBI single by Justin Leisenheimer.
UMaine scored three more runs in the fifth inning to put the game out of reach.
Balentina pitched all seven innings to improve his record to 3-0 on the season. He scattered seven hits around one unearned run and struck out two.
“I just tried to go out there and keep my team in it,” Balentina said, “getting outs [and] keeping the ball down.”
“He pitched outstanding,” Trimper said of the lefty’s performance. “[He had] a low pitch count, [and] he worked ahead. The only time he gave up hits was when the ball was up and behind in the count, but that’s when we got the double plays.”
In game two Saturday, freshman right-hander AJ Bazdanes continued to pitch well. He allowed only two earned runs to keep his record perfect on the season.
The Retrievers once again struck in the first inning on a Wink Nolan solo home run.
Cather’s RBI groundout to score Joey Martin in the third inning tied the game 1-1.
In the fourth inning, the Black Bears scored two runs on a Jarrett Lukas RBI single and a Martin RBI groundout.
UMBC kept the game close, scoring a run in the seventh to cut it to 3-2, but UMaine took advantage of some Retriever miscues. Martin reached on an error to lead off the inning, and after a Menendez bunt single, Martin scored when Cather reached on an error. Ian Leisenheimer plated Menendez and Cather on a single down the left field line and pinch runner Taylor Lewis scored to make it 7-2 when Kyle Stilphen grounded out.
Bazdanes (3-0) gave up nine hits, struck out six and walked nobody to pick up the victory.
The Black Bears resume action Tuesday at 4 p.m. when they play the College of the Holy Cross in a nonconference game in Sanford. They return to conference play when they host the University of Vermont (9-20, 2-4 AE) for a four-game series beginning next Saturday.
Bangor Daily News