ORONO, Maine – The University of Maine baseball team split an America East doubleheader with Stony Brook on Saturday at Mahaney Diamond. The Black Bears fell in the first game, 4-1, but came back for a win in the second game, 4-2.
Colin Ridley finished with three hits, two RBIs and one run scored on the day while
Jonathan Bennett,
Danny Casals and
Kevin Doody each had two hits. The Black Bears collected six hits in each game for a doubleheader total of 12.
Eddie Emerson started for Maine in game one, going 6.1 innings while allowing two runs on four hits, striking out four and walking none. In his third win of the year,
John Arel pitched 6.0 innings in game two, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out five and walking two
The America East foes battled through three scoreless frames - with Bec throwing out a runner trying to steal second in the second inning - before the Black Bears put a run on the board in the bottom of the fourth.
Christopher Bec led off the Maine at-bat with a single through the left side and then stole second. The next batter,
Hernen Sardinas, moved Bec to third with a sacrifice fly and then
Jonathan Bennett laced a single up the middle to score Bec.
Scoreless fifth and sixth innings gave Maine a 1-0 lead heading into the top of the seventh but the Black Bears wouldn't be able to hang on.
A leadoff doubled from John Tuccillo allowed him to score two batters later on another double, this time from Bobby Honeyman. Two batters later, Chris Hamilton touched relief pitcher
Matt Geoffrion up for a single to right field to score Bobby Honeyman. That would be the winning run, but Stony Brook plated two more in the eighth. Nick Grande's singled to left and an error on the play brought around a leadoff walk and moved Grande to third. Grande then crossed home on a Tuccillo single to make it 4-2.
Casals led off the ninth with a single to left field and advanced as far as third but that would be it for Maine's rally.
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In the second, seven-inning game of the doubleheader, Bec's RBI in the bottom of the first – driving in Pena who had led off with a triple to left – staked Maine to a 1-0 lead once again.
In a repeat of the first game, the Seawolves answered with two runs, this time in the second inning on a sacrifice fly and a single to left field.
The Black Bears, though, fought back to reclaim the lead in the bottom of the second and wouldn't give it up.
Bennett led off the inning by earning a walk and moved over to second on Doody's sacrifice bunt. Ridley's double to deep right allowed Bennett to score. Ridley himself scored when
Cody Pasic knocked the ball to center field for a double and a 3-2 lead.
Maine added one more run in the fourth inning. Doody doubled down the left field line, Ridley drove the ball to right field to score Doody.
It was Ridley's fifth multiple hit game of the season while Bennett extended his hitting streak to five games.
Maine (9-20, 5-3 AE) and Stony Brook (16-12, 5-3 AE) will close out the weekend series with a single game tomorrow at 12 p.m. at Mahaney Diamond.
-UMaine-
