ORONO, Maine - The Black Bears wrapped up the Delray Invitiational in Delray Beach with a 1-2 series record against the UMass Minutemen, and will travel to Coral Gables to face the Miami Hurricanes for a two-game mid-week series before starting conference play at UMBC this weekend.
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Last Time Out
The Black Bears looked to bounce back from a 5-1 loss to UMass on Saturday when they faced off with the Minutemen again on Sunday in an 11am matinee. The Bears were able to overcome an early two-run deficit and led after two innings of play by a score of 4-2, and after having UMass tie it back up in the third, Maine re-took a one-run lead in the bottom of the third, 5-4. After adding an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth to make it 6-4, UMass tied the game and retook the lead with a three-run top of the sixth. Maine's pitcher at the time, Connor Johnson, let up four hits, three earned runs, in his 2.2 innings of work, getting the loss. Maine's starter Nick Silva went only 3.0 innings with three hits, four earned runs, striking out two. UMass would run away with the game after that scoring a run in each of the remaining innings to take the game by the final score of 10-6.
Maine So Far
The Black Bears have done most of their damage in neutral-site games at Delray Beach, where they are 6-4 on the season; they are 0-4 in away games thusfar this season, getting swept at Winthrop to open the season and losing to FAU last Wednesday, 12-6. They are 6-8 so far on the season, and are led by Christopher Bec in the batting column, as he leads the team with a .344 batting average, and a team-high 21 hits and eight RBIs. Danny Casals continues to produce after an impressive Freshman season, he hits .291, a .400 on-base percentage, and four RBIs on 16 hits. Jonathan Bennett has been impressive so far in his first season with Maine, he bats .260 with six RBIs and a team-high .413 on-base percentage.
Maine's two starters in this series will be Trevor DeLaite ((0-0): 9.0 IP, 3.00 ERA, 7 hits, 8 BB, 10 K's, .226 OppBA) and Chris Murphy making his second start of the season ((0-1): 2.1 IP, 11.57 ERA, 3 hits, 3 BB, 2 K's, .333 OppBA) who both saw action in last Wednesday's game at FAU, with Murphy getting the start and DeLaite coming into the game in relief.
Scouting the Hurricanes
The Hurricanes so far this season are 6-9 overall with a 2-1 conference record, they are 5-5 at home and 1-4 on the road this season. They are led by Carl Chester (.339 batting average, team-high 19 hits) and Romy Gonzalez (team-high 14 RBIs, three home runs). Their last home loss was March 11th, when they fell to #23 Georgia Tech 7-5, in between beating Georgia Tech 10-8 the night previous, and 17-7 the following night. This will be Miami's fourth and fifth straight home game, and ninth and tenth out of 11 of the last games at home. The Hurricanes will start two rightys on the mound, Evan McKendry on Tuesday ((1-0): 9.2 IP, 2.79 ERA, 9 hits, 6 BB, 6 K's, .250 OppBA) and Gregory Veliz on Wednesday ((0-1): 9.1 IP, 4.82 ERA, 7 hits, 5 BB, 12 K's, .194 OppBA).
-UMaine-
