Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
Although it wasn’t always pretty, the University of Maine baseball team swept the three-game weekend series against the University of Hartford. The Black Bears (23-16 overall, 7-3 America East), had to scrape out the final victory on Sunday to take all three America East Conference games from the Hawks who fall to 8-24 overall and 2-8 in conference play.
A balanced lineup was the key to UMaine’s sweep, as their defense faltered throughout the weekend.
“Everyone contributed,” said UMaine center fielder Taylor Lewis, who had a home run in the first game, but was held hitless in the following two. “They were pitching around me, I wasn’t being patient enough at the plate.”
Saturday started off on the wrong foot for UMaine’s Steve Perakslis (3-4). Early control problems put two Hawks on base, followed by an RBI single by Jared Canney, and a rare throwing error by Maine catcher Joey Mercurio which gave Hartford an early 2-0 lead. The Black Bears didn’t wait long to get on the board, as Tyler Patzalek drove in Taylor Lewis in the bottom of the first.
Perakslis continued to struggle into the second, giving up three runs in the inning. UMaine responded with one in the bottom of the second, to lower the deficit to 5-2. Perakslis soon settled in, and held the Hawks scoreless for his final two innings of work, striking out five in four innings of work.
UMaine continued to deliver at that plate, scoring in each inning of the first game. In the third, they brought Hartford’s lead down to one, after Mercurio scored on an error, and Matt Howard drove in Patzalek. In the fourth, with two out and two on, Taylor Lewis gave the Black Bears the lead for the first time with a monstrous homerun to right-center field.
“I was just looking for something to drive, and I saw it well, and hit it back in the direction it was coming from,” Lewis said.
The bats continued to work in the fifth, where four Black Bears gained RBI base hits. Kyle Stilphen, Tony Patane, and Michael Fransoso all scored one during the hit parade, and Mercurio drove in two on his second double of the game, making the score 12-5.
Hartford responded with two in the sixth off of Barry Keiffer, who came on for Keith Bilodeau in the sixth. UMaine returned the favor in the bottom of the sixth, getting two runs of their own, as Joey Martin crossed home off a single by George Tager. A sac fly by Patane scored another, increasing the lead back to seven, where it stayed as UMaine took game one, 14-7.
Game two was quite the contrary to game one, as there were just 10 total hits combined for both teams. UMaine’s AJ Bazdanes (4-3), got the win for the Black Bears, going six and a third innings, giving up just one run and striking out seven.
UMaine scored the first run of the game in the third off a balk by Hartford pitcher Mike Thatcher (3-2), who got the loss for the Hawks. The scoring continued as Mercurio drove in Fransoso to give Maine the 2-0 lead.
Hartford cut UMaine’s lead in half in the top of the fifth, but Black Bears regained the two-run lead as Fransoso scored his second run of the game off a Patzalek double.
UMaine added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, when Howard drove in Joey Martin with a sacrifice fly. Bilodeau, who came on in relief for Bazdanes, closed out the game to give the Black Bears the Saturday sweep with a 4-1 win.
The series finale on Sunday saw even less offensive action to start, with no hits recorded heading into the bottom of the third. Hartford pitcher Chris Greiner (2-2), who got the loss on the day, first ran into trouble when UMaine executed a successful hit-and-run that put runners on the corners. Fransoso grounded into a double play, which contributed to the first run of the game as Howard crossed home, making the score 1-0. Mercurio drove in Lugbauer on a base hit, to make the score 2-0.
Jeffrey Gibbs, who got the start for Maine, carried a no-hitter heading into the fifth, where Hartford’s Jon Ricco obtained the Hawks first hit. UMaine carried the same lead heading into the sixth, when Hartford’s Victor Santana delivered the first extra-base hit of the game. Andy Drexel brought Santana home on a sac fly, cutting the Black Bear lead in half.
Hartford tied the game in the following inning after an error by Gibbs put the Hawks’ Rodger Wilmot on third. A successful suicide squeeze scored the tying run. Greiner pitched himself out of a jam in the bottom half of the seventh, when he struck out both Lewis and Patzalek to end the jam.
The Hawks took their first lead of the day at 3-2 in the top of the eighth, when a throwing error by Patzalek resulted in the go-ahead run crossing the plate for the Hawks. Justin Latta (4-1), who came on in relief for Gibbs in the eighth, got out of the bases loaded jam by striking out Hartford’s Cory Beahm and getting leadoff man Andrew Siano to ground out.
Down one heading into the bottom half of the eighth, Joey Martin reached second on a leadoff double. Howard drove in Martin with a double of his own, tying the game at 3.
“It was my fourth time seeing that pitcher, so I was confident. I just tried to put the ball in play,” Howard said.
UMaine loaded the bases in the eighth, when Fransoso legged out an infield single, driving in Howard and giving the Black Bears its final lead of the day at 4-3.
“We didn’t play well, but we did what we needed to do to get the win,” said UMaine coach Steve Trimper.
The play was considerably sloppy, featuring seven errors total and four in the final game.
“We need to think about playing clean defense,” Trimper said. “When we do that, we’re tough to beat.”
UMaine, which is tied for first place in America East with Binghamton University, hosts America East rival Stony Brook University (16-18, 6-3) in a crucial four-game series next weekend at Mahaney Diamond. The doubleheaders begin at 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
