Baseball Hosts ACC's Boston College At Hadlock Field on Tuesday at 6 PM
5/14/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BC Notes
The University of Maine baseball team hosts the Boston College Eagles this evening at Hadlock Field in Portland, Maine. The Black Bears are 25-22 on the season, while the Eagles enter play today with a mark of 21-30. You can purchase tickets for the game here (.)
SCOUTING THE MAINE BLACK BEARS: Maine is led by Tyler Patzalek who is batting .319 with 26 runs scored and 4331 RBI. He has six doubles and three home runs on the season. Troy Black is chipping in with a .317 batting average with 26 runs scored and 18 RBI. He has four doubles to go along with 15 stolen bases. Michael Fransoso has a .306 average with a team-high 49 runs scored and 23 RBI. He has 14 doubles, four triples and four home runs to go along with 18 stolen bases. Fran Whitten is hitting an even .300 with 30 runs scored and 21 RBI. He has 11 doubles on the campaign. Colin Gay is hitting .298 with 29 runs scored and 26 RBI. He has six doubles and 11 stolen bases. Ian Leisenheimer has a .297 average with 26 runs scored and 29 RBI. He has eight doubles and a pair of triples. Scott Heath is also batting .297 with 19 runs scored and 17 RBI. He has 10 doubles on the season. Alex Calbick is hitting .275 with 34 runs scored and 36 RBI. He has 15 doubles and four home runs. Justin Leisenheimer is batting .255 on the campaign with 27 runs scored and 24 RBI. He has six doubles to go along with five home runs. Sam Balzano is hitting .358 with 12 runs scored and 11 RBI in 53 at-bats.
The pitching staff is led by Shaun Coughlin who is 4-4 with a 3.60 ERA. He has three complete games and a pair of saves. He has struck out 48 batters on the season. D.J. Voisine is 4-0 with a 3.67 ERA. Stephen Perakslis is 4-4 with a 3.93 ERA. Mike Connolly is 4-5 with a 5.62 ERA with a team-high three saves. Jeffrey Gibbs is 3-4 with a 7.81 ERA. He leads the team, having struck out 52 batters on the season. Jonathan Balentina and Fran Whitten each also have a pair of wins on the season.
MAINE COACHING STAFF IN 2012: Maine head coach Steve Trimper (Eastern Connecticut State University '92) is in his seventh season at the helm of the Black Bears. He has an overall record of 373-346-4 in his 14th season as a head coach. He has a record of 201-172-2 with the Black Bears. Trimper won his 200th game at Maine on Saturday, May 12 at Hartford. He is assisted by Jason Spaulding (Vermont '00), and former student-athletes Billy Cather (Maine '09) and Ryan Forrest (Maine '09).
SCOUTING THE BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES: Boston College is 21-30 on the season. The Eagles are led by Tyler Hinchliffe who is hitting .345 with 11 runs scored and nine RBI. Tom Bourdon has a .323 average with 35 runs scored and 33 RBI. He has 18 doubles to go along with nine home runs. Anthony Melchionda is batting .321 with 37 runs scored and 30 RBI. He has 16 doubles and five home runs. Rob Moir has a .301 average with 24 runs scored and 17 RBI. He has 15 doubles to go along with three triples. Blake Butera has a .278 average with 30 runs scored and 29 RBI. He has nine doubles and three homers. Marc Perdios is chipping in with a .277 average with 28 runs scored and 20 RBI. He has 11 doubles on the season. John Hennessy has a .270 average with 14 runs scored and 14 RBI.
The pitching staff is led by Eric Stevens who is 5-2 with a 5.40 ERA. He has struck out 40 batters. Nate Bayuk is 3-2 with a 2.93 ERA. Hunter Gordon is 2-7 with a 5.83 ERA. Nick Poore and Matt Alvarez each also have a pair of wins on the season. Matt Brazis has five saves.
The Eagles are coached by Mike Gambino (Boston College '00) who is in his second season. He is assisted by former Maine assistant coach Scott Friedholm, Steve Englert and Greg Sullivan.
200 WINS AT MAINE: Black Bear head coach Steve Trimper won his 200th game at Maine on Saturday, May 12 in the first game of a doubleheader against Hartford. The Black Bears won the game 6-3 in eight innings after a three-run home run by Michael Fransoso in the top of the eighth inning.
LITTLE BIT BETTER THAN SOSO: Junior Michael Fransoso had a weekend that was a bit better than soso. In the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday, Fransoso belted a game-winning three run home run in the top of the eighth inning. He followed that up by jacking his second homer of the day in the second game. He finished the weekend hitting .364 with six runs scored and six RBI. He finished the weekend with a .909 slugging percentage and a .500 on-base percentage. He was a perfect 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts.
PLAYING AT HADLOCK: Maine is making its first appearance at Hadlock Field since the 1998 season. That season, the Black Bears faced the University of Massachusetts.
DOUBLE THE FUN:Maine has hit 90 doubles on the season. That is one more that it finished with all of last season in 10 more games.
CAREER MILESTONES: Several Black Bears are approaching milestones. Justin Leisenheimer currently has 99 career runs scored and 93 career RBI. He recently recorded his 150th career hit and currently has 153 hits. Alex Calbick recorded his 100th career hit last weekend and has 105 career hits. Michael Fransoso has played in 152 career games, while he has stolen 53 bases. Fransoso has also scored 149 career runs. Fran Whitten has scored 48 runs in his career. Colin Gay has played in 96 career games.
STREAKING BEARS: Michael Fransoso leads all Black Bears, having hit in seven straight game. Colin Gay has reached base safely in nine straight, while Alex Calbick has been on base in eight straight games.
FANNING EIGHT: Sophomore Shaun Coughlin had an impressive performance against Hartford. He pitched his third complete game of the season and allowed just one run on three hits. He struck out a season-high eight batters, which tied his career high. He is second on the team, having fanned 48 batters on the season.
CLOSE TO THE CYCLE: Junior captain Michael Fransoso was close to hitting for the cycle on Wednesday, April 25 at UMass. Fransoso led off the game with a triple down the right field line. He doubled to lead off the fifth inning before belting a two-run home run in the seventh inning. He finished a single shy of the cycle.
LEISENHEIMER AT-BATS: Justin and Ian Leisenheimer are both in their fourth season with the Black Bears. They are within six at-bats of each other all-time. Ian has recorded 536 at-bats in his career, while Justin has 530 at-bats.
HOME SWEET HOME: Maine is 7-2 at home this season. In addition, the Black Bears have outscored their opponents 58-17 in games played at Mahaney Diamond this season.
RECORD SETTING WEEKEND: Maine scored 76 runs in four games at UMBC the weekend of April 6 and 7. The Black Bears set a school and America East record with 32 runs in the second game on Friday. It breaks the Maine record of 27 runs set in 1976 against Husson. The Black Bears hit nine doubles on Saturday, breaking the school record of seven set in 1981 against Miami and tied four times. The Black Bears had 25 RBI in the game on Friday, just shy of the record of 27 also set in 1976 against Husson.
BACK FOR MORE: The Black Bears return 18 letterwinners from last year's squad and have brought in nine newcomers.
SAVING THE DAY: Maine has six saves on the season. Mike Connolly leads the way with three, while Shaun Coughlin has a pair and D.J. Voisine one.
17 STRAIGHT INNINGS: Maine scored a run in 17 straight innings at UMBC on April 6 and 7. In the first game of a doubleheader on Friday, Maine scored a run in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Maine scored a run in all nine innings in the second game of the doubleheader. The Black Bears then scored a run in each of the first three innings in the first game on Saturday.
OPENING WIN: Maine opened up this season with a 6-5 win at #16 Clemson. It was the first time the Black Bears won their season opener since 2008 when they swept Delaware State.
DOUBLE DIGIT HITS: Maine put up some impressive numbers during its 14-game winning streak earlier this season.
BROTHERLY LOVE: The Black Bears have three sets of brothers on the squad this season: Justin and Ian Leisenheimer, Robbie and Steve Trask, and Nick and Garrett Bernardo.
FAMILY TIES: Garrett and Nick Bernardos' father Rick Bernardo played for the Black Bears from 1983-86 and was a first team All-American.
KEEPING IT LOCAL: Maine currently has eight players from Maine and an additional 11 from the New England area.
TOUGH OPENING STRETCH: Seven of Maine's first nine games were against nationally ranked opponents: Clemson (#16), Florida State (#8), and Stetson (#19).
PERFECT RELIEF: Luke Morrill pitched 3.2 innings of perfect relief against Fordham at the Seton Hall Strike Out Cancer Tournament on March 17. He retired all 11 batters he faced, five of them on strike outs.
WHAT A BEAUT: Shaun Coughlin threw a complete game in Maine's 6-1 win over Bowling Green on March 10. He surrendered only six hits and one run. He did not issue a walk and struck out seven batters.
1800 AND COUNTING: Last year's Regional Tournament win over FIU marked the 1,800th win in program history. The Black Bears are currently 1825-1430-17.
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: Maine has four captains for the 2012: Jonathan Balentina, Michael Fransoso, Jeff Gibbs, and Justin Leisenheimer.
BLACK BEARS HONORED FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: Maine had eight student athletes earn Maine Scholar Athlete Honors for the fall 2011 semester: Sam Balzano, Garrett Bernardo, Brian Doran, and Luke Morrill were awarded the *Rising Star* honors. A.J. Bazdanes, Colin Gay and Pat Thibodeau earned Bronze Medals while Jonathan Balentina earned Double Gold Honors.
AMERICA EAST ACADEMIC HONORS: Maine had 11 student-athletes honored last spring by being named to the America East Academic Honor Roll: Jonathan Balentina*, Nick deVries, Ian Leisenheimer*, Justin Leisenheimer, Taylor Lewis, Joey Martin, Tony Patane, Carson Pillar*, Kyle Benoit, Kyle Stilphen and George Tager*. * denotes Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll with 3.5 or higher.
NEW WAYS TO FOLLOW THE BLACK BEARS: In addition to following the Maine baseball team on www.GoBlackBears.com, you can also follow the Black Bear baseball team via facebook and twitter. Become a fan of UMaine Baseball on facebook and follow the Black Bears on twitter at www.twitter.com/MaineBaseball
