ORONO, Maine - After playing a six-game non-conference schedule in the past week, the Black Bears resume conference play in Vestal, New York as they take on the league-leading Binghamton Bearcats. The Black Bears are riding a four-game winning streak into the series, winning eight of their last 10 games, while Binghamton has also won four straight, nine of their last 12.
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Last Time Out
The Black Bears faced off with the UMaine-Farmington Beavers in a mid-week matchup which saw Maine taking the victory 12-2 with home runs from
Colin Ridley (first of the season) and
Caleb Kerbs (second of the season) and eight Black Bear pitchers in the contest. Maine shut out Farmington for the first seven innings, with Farmington only managing two runs in the eighth to get on the board.
A Look at Maine
The Black Bears come into this series with a 3-3 conference record going 1-2 against UMass Lowell and 2-1 against Hartford the following weekend. The Black Bears are led by Chris Bec, who holds a team-high batting average of .383 and has the most hits on the team this season with 44.
Jeremy Pena has been swinging the bat well as of late, as he now leads the team in RBIs with 19.
Tyler Schwanz, Maine's consistent four-hitter out of right field, leads the team with three home runs and is also chipping in a .274 batting average. The Black Bears look to start a rotation of
Justin Courtney (4-3, 3.42 ERA),
John Arel (1-0, 8.68 ERA) and
Jonah Normandeau (1-3, 4.50 ERA).
Scouting The Bearcats
Binghamton enters this series as the number one team in the conference with a 6-2 conference record. They are led by Justin Drpich with a team-high .368 batting average and Paul Rufo who leads the team in hits with 33 and RBIs with 19. The Bearcat's pitching rotation will see Nick Gallagher game one (team-high four wins), Nick Wegmann game two, and Jacob Wloczewski in game three.
Chris Bec: America East Player of the Week
Third-year catcher
Christopher Bec has won the America East Player of the Week for the week of April 11th to the 18th for his performance against Manhattan College last weekend, as he helped the Black Bears take the series 3-1. Bec led the America East in batting average with a .571, and in slugging percentage with .857 last weekend.
The University of Maine played a four-game series against Manhattan College this past weekend where Bec went 8-14 with four RBI. Going into the series, Bec had a batting average of .358, but increased it to .385. Of his eight hits, four of them were doubles, and opened up the series batting .750 with a 3-for-4, three RBI performance.
-UMaine-
