ORONO, Maine - The Black Bears have played all but one game in the month of May at Mahaney Diamond, and conclude the regular season with a three-game home series against the Albany Great Danes. Maine and UAlbany open the series with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 19 before meeting for a single contest on Saturday, May 20, also at 1 p.m. The Black Bears are coming off a weekend conference sweep of UMass Lowell, and a tough loss to Boston College on Tuesday night, while Albany comes in after taking two-of-three games against Hartford and then defeating Sacred Heart in a high-scoring 14-13 game.
Last Time Out
The Black Bears took a 8-3 lead over BC into the eighth inning, but hot bats from the Eagles produced a six-run bottom of the eighth, and they were able to shut down a lead-off double situation from the Black Bears in the top of the ninth to edge out a victory. Jeremy Pena went 3-5 including three RBIs and a run; Chris Bec also went 3-5 in the contest. Chris Murphy and John Arel held the Eagles to no hits until the eighth inning before BC tallied five runs in the eighth with six earned runs.
A Look at Maine
The Black Bears are led by Junior Catcher Chris Bec, who has a team-high .359 batting average and 60 hits. He now leads the conference in batting average, and has a conference-high 17 doubles on the year. Sophomore shortstop Jeremy Pena has been swinging the bat well as of late, he's second on the team in RBIs with 30, and batting average with .304. Senior right-fielder Tyler Schwanz has hit a team-high six home runs this season, he is batting .272 on the season. He now holds the team-high for RBI's with 32. Pena and Scwhanz rank third and fourth in the conference in triples hit this season, Pena has four triples, Schwanz has three.
Scouting the Great Danes
Albany comes into this series with a 22-23 record, 8-12 in America East play. They are led by Kevin Donati and Connor Powers who each tote a team-high .329 batting average. Donati leads the team in hits with 56, with 12 doubles, three triples and four home runs, and Powers has tallied 52 hits, 15 doubles, two triples and three home runs. Travis Collins leads the team in home runs and RBIs as he has hit 10 homeruns on the season and has brought home 34 RBIs.
- UMaine -
