ORONO, Maine - Maine Baseball started their first home series of the season at Mahaney Diamond as they hosted Hartford for a Saturday double header, as the Black Bears gained two conference wins in the double-header sweep, winning game one by a score of 1-0, and game two by a score of 3-2. The two conference wins catapulted the Black Bears from seventh to third in the early America East season with a 3-2 conference record.
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Game one saw a pitchers duel between Maine's
Justin Courtney and Hartford's Brian Stepniak, who threw 8.0 innings and 7.0 innings respectively in the contest.
Justin Courtney for Maine would allow only two hits, no earned runs, and two walks in the contest, while striking out five.
Cody Laweryson came into the game in the ninth inning to close, and would end up getting the win as the Black Bears would walk off.
The game was scoreless until the final frame, when
Tyler Schwanz led off with a walk, and
Lou Della Fera hit a sacrifice bunt to move him into scoring position. After an infield single by
Caleb Kerbs,
Jonathan Bennett would reach on a single, sending Schwanz to third and Kerbs to second base. A wild pitch to
Hernen Sardinas would get away from the Hartford catcher, as
Tyler Schwanz advanced to home on the wild pitch to walk off with a 1-0 win.
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Game two was a seven-inning contest that saw a lot of scoring action early, and turned into a pitchers duel afterwards. The top of the first inning saw two Hartford runs on an RBI triple and a passed ball, giving them a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the first. Maine would respond in the bottom of the first, as lead off hitter
Danny Casals walked, and then stole second base.
Christopher Bec would hit a single to left field, sending Casals to third, and with the bases loaded after a
Jonathan Bennett walk,
Caleb Kerbs would hit a deep left field single which was able to score Bec from second and Casals from third to tie the game at two-all.
The Black Bears would add their game winning run in the bottom of the third inning; a lead-off triple from Chris Bec set up
Jonathan Bennett's sacrifice RBI, as he flew out to right field with no outs, scoring Bec, as Maine led 3-2.
Jonah Normandeau, despite allowing the two early runs, would hold the Hartford Hawks to just those two runs. He went 6.0 innings, allowing nine hits, walking only one batter.
Jeff Gelinas came into the game in the top of the seventh to close, and got his fourth save of the season going 1.0 innings, facing five batters allowing no hits, walking two but striking out one. Normandeau gets his first win of the season and is now 1-3 on the season.
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The two teams will play game three on Sunday at 1pm at Mahaney Diamond.
-UMaine-
