ORONO, Maine - The Black Bears faced off against the Manhattan College Jaspers for a two-game series Friday afternoon, which saw a 3-1 win in game one and a 4-6 loss in game two.

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Reigning America East Co-Pitcher of the Week Justin Courtney pitched a complete game in game one, allowing only one earned run on seven hits, but he also struck out seven on the afternoon in the win, bringing his record this season to 3-3. He threw 106 pitches, 71 of them were strikes.

A scoreless game through three innings, Maine would take the lead in the bottom of the fourth, as Christopher Bec would hit a lead-off double and advance to third on a passed ball, and Tyler Schwanz would hit a ball hard to short stop driving Bec in to score, giving Maine a 1-0 lead.

The Jaspers would tie the game up in the top of the fifth on a deep two-out hit that would score a runner from second base, but the batter would be out trying to turn the single into a double after Maine attempted to throw out the runner at home.

Maine would tally the go-ahead run and insurance run in the sixth and seventh innings, as Jeremy Pena led off the sixth with a single, and would advance to third on two ground-outs, and would score as Tyler Schwanz reached on an error by third base. Brandon Vicens would lead off the seventh inning with an infield single that would eventually turn into three bases due to a throwing error by the pitcher, and a Hernen Sardinas sac-fly would bring Vicens in to score the insurance run, 3-1.

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Game two saw Jonah Normandeau getting the start for Maine; he had 3.0 innings of work, allowing eight hits and two earned runs, and striking out two.

Game two also saw a total of 10 runs in the seven innings of play, The Jaspers got out in front scoring two runs in the second and one run in the third inning, to lead 3-0 after three complete innings.

Maine would rally back in the bottom of the fourth with a four-run inning to take the lead. A lead-off error would let Caleb Kerbs reach base, and he would score on a Cody Pasic double. Jeremy Pena's bunt single would send Pasic to third, and Colin Ridley's single to right field would score Pasic to cut the lead in half. Chris Bec would bunt to advance runners to second and third, and Tyler Schwanz grounded out to short stop allowing Pena to score from third to tie the game at 3-3. The next batter, Jonathan Bennett, would hit an RBI double to score Ridley from third, giving Maine the 4-3 lead.

Maine would hold their 4-3 lead until the sixth inning when Manhattan would score two runs on a triple and a single, as Manhattan re-took the lead 5-4. They would score their insurance run in the top of the seventh as a deep single would score the sixth Jasper run.

Jeff Gelinas would pitch the final 1.2 innings, throwing 28 pitches, allowing no earned runs, and striking out four, but Maine couldn't get any offense in the final two innings as they fell short. Connor Johnson gets the loss for Maine, his record now 2-3 on the season as he allowed two hits, two earned runs and one walk in 0.2 inning pitched.

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Maine and Manhattan will play another double header on Saturday, game one starting at 12pm.

-UMaine-