ORONO, Maine - The University of Maine baseball team will head to Georgia this weekend to take on the Ohio University Bobcats in a neutral site series.

Due to the technological limits of the neutral site location, live stats, audio, and video will not be available for this series. Follow @MaineBaseball on Twitter for updates.

Series Information
Maine Black Bears vs. Ohio University Bobcats
DATE: Friday, Feb. 23-Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018
SITE: Emerson, Ga.
2018 Records: Maine 0-4, Ohio 2-2
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Probable Starters
Game 1 (3 p.m., Friday, Feb. 23): Maine (RHP Justin Courtney, 0-1) | Ohio (LHP Gerry Salisbury, 0-1
Game 2 (1 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 24): Maine (LHP Eddie Emerson, 0-1) | Ohio (RHP Michael Klein, 1-0)
Game 3 (~5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 24): Maine (LHP Trevor DeLaite, 0-0) | Ohio (LHP Butch Baird, 0-0)
Game 4 (11 a.m., Sunday, Feb. 25): Maine (RHP Chris Murphy, 0-1) | Ohio (LHP Cole Shinsky, 0-0)

What's on Tap
• The University of Maine and Ohio University will meet for the first time ever this weekend, playing a four-game series in Emerson, Ga.

Last Time Out
• UMaine opened up the season last week against No. 3 Texas Tech, dropping all four games at Rip Griffin Stadium.
• Maine starter Justin Courtney racked up five strikeouts over the first three innings of the opener, but the Red Raiders pushed three runs across in the third and added one in the fifth and got a 4-2 win.
• Texas Tech took the Saturday doubleheader by putting up 12 runs in each game (12-1, 12-5) and then took Saturday's contest too (21-6) despite Maine's best offensive outing of the weekend.
• Jeremy Pena led Maine with five hits and five runs score on the weekend while Jonathan Bennett had a team-high three RBIs.
• All 10 of Maine's batters on the weekend reach base at least once while nine out of 10 had at least one hit.

The Black Bears, In Brief
• UMaine was 25-29 last season and finished in sixth place in the America East regular season standings with an 8-12 record before fighting its way to the conference championship game. It was the first season under the guidance of then interim head coach and now head coach, Nick Derba.
• The 25 wins were the most for UMaine in four seasons, and in America East Tournament play, the Black Bears earned four-straight wins for a berth in the title game where they were edge in extra innings, 2-1, by UMBC.
• The Black Bears are an experienced squad, boasting eight seniors and seven juniors for 15 upperclassmen among its roster of 28 players.
• Maine returns three players in Christopher Bec, Jeremy Pena and Brandon Vicens that started all 54 games last season as well as Hernen Sardinas (53 games), Jonathan Bennett (52) and Caleb Kerbs (52).
• Bec earned himself the catcher slot on the America East Second Team after leading the conference with a .360 batting average in the regular season and tying for the lead in doubles (17).
• Sardinas was named to the All-Rookie team at first base after a regular season in which he hit .263 with 15 doubles, two home runs and 21 RBIs while classmate and right-handed relief pitcher Cody Laweryson earned a spot after posting a 4-2 record with a 3.55 ERA in 33.0 innings pitched and 33 strikeouts.  
• Conor Burke returns for his third season with the Black Bears, while John Schiffner returns for his second stint and second year after previously serving as a volunteer assistant during the 2014-15 season.

About Ohio University
• Ohio opened up the 2018 season with four games against Rider last weekend, going 2-2.
• The Bobcats lost the first game 6-4 before sweeping a doubleheader (10-2, 6-5) and then losing an extra innings battle (11) by a 6-5 score.
• In the first game of the doubleheader sweep, Ohio produced 15 hits, with the top five hitters in the order earning multiple hits.
• Ohio started three lefthanders and one righty last weekend, with three of those four starters lasting 4.2 innings.
• Tony Giannini hammered out eight hits on the weekend, including three doubles and a triple, while Trevor Hafner had seven hits, including four doubles, and a team-high six RBIs.
• The Bobcats, who won the 2017 Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship, were picked to finish fourth in the 2018 MAC Preseason Poll.
• Rob Smith is in his sixth year has head coach of the Bobcats and has guided the team to two MAC tournament titles in the last three years.

Series History vs. Ohio University
• This is the first-ever meeting between the Bobcats and the Black Bears.
• Maine is 12-16-1 all-time against current Mid-American Conference schools.

On Offense
• Junior Jeremy Pena tied for the team lead in home runs last year with six and was first in slugging percentage (.491), hits (72), runs scored (39), triples (4) and total bases (111), while sitting second in RBIs (32), batting average (.319) and stolen bases (9).
• Senior Christopher Bec led the squad with his .340 batting average, .426 on base percentage, 15 stolen bases and 20 doubles. He was second in hits (68), slugging percentage (.465), and runs scored (38) and fourth in RBIS (26).
• Senior Jonathan Bennett batted .261 with 26 RBIS, five stolen bases and 12 doubles.

On the Mound
• UMaine returns experienced options in the rotation - the four pitchers with the most starts from a year ago are back - and some newcomers figuring to deepen the relief corps.
• Senior Justin Courtney led the pitching staff with 67 strikeouts and started a team-high 15 games last year, going 4-5 with a 3.92 ERA while walking 33 in 87.1 innings of work.
• Senior Connor Johnson led last year's team with 23 appearances, all in relief, and tied for the team lead in wins (4) while also earning one save.
• Redshirt senior Jonah Normandeau (2-6, 4.36) was second with 12 starts a season ago while also appearing in relief once.
• Junior Nick Silva (2-2, 4.64) finished second on the team with 62 strikeouts in 64.0 innings of work in 2017. He made 11 starts and had four relief appearances
• Four of UMaine's five most used relief pitchers last season are back in Johnson, sophomore Cody Laweryson (4-2, 3.08 1 SV), junior Eddie Emerson (3-0, 4.88) and redshirt senior Zach Winn (0-0, 4.78).

Double Duty
• Outfielder Brandon Vicens not only plays an important role for the baseball team, but he also straps on the pads for the UMaine football team.
• The junior fullback appeared in six games this year for the Black Bears to go with his nine appearances during the 2016 season.

Pena's Prowess
• Last season, Jeremy Pena put together a 19-game hitting streak, beginning with a two-hit outing on April 9 against Hartford and ending with a two-hit outing against UAlbany on May 20.
• It was UMaine's longest streak of the season as well as the longest of Pena's career, besting a five-game mark he earned as a freshman, and the best for Maine since Danny Casals had an 11-game streak in 2016.
• The Black Bears' record for consecutive games with a hit belongs to Brian Seguin, who did it in 27 games straight during the 1990 season.
• During the 19-game streak, Pena had 12 of his 24 team-leading multiple-hit game and hit three of his team-leading six home runs.

The 135th Season
• UMaine is embarking on its 135th season of play with the 2018 season, with the Black Bears first having played during the 1881 season.
• After 134 seasons, UMaine held an overall record of 1958-1579-17 and had made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances and seven College World Series appearances.
• There have been two canceled seasons, with UMaine not fielding teams in 1892 and 1944.
• Head coach Nick Derba is the 25th coach in the history of the program.

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