ORONO, Maine – After falling in the first game of a doubleheader, the University of Maine baseball team came back to top Hartford in the second to earn an America East split on Friday at Mahaney Diamond. The Black Bears (18-31, 12-11 AE) dropped game one, 9-2, and then rebounded for a 3-1 win over the Hawks (22-29, 15-8 AE) in game two
 
Eight players finished with at least one hit for Maine on the day. Jeremy Pena had two hits, including a solo home run, and scored two runs while Danny Casals had two hits and one RBI. Pena extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
 
In game one, the Hawks scored three runs in the first inning en route to the first-place clinching victory. The win locked up the first-ever program title and No. 1 seed for the America East tournament for Hartford.
 
The Black Bears put up one run in the home half of the first inning – with Casals driving in Pena on a sacrifice fly to deep right – to close the gap to 3-1.
 
However, the Hawks made it 4-1 in the top of the second and Cody Pasic's sacrifice fly to left field in the bottom of the inning would be Maine's final run of the game. Hartford went on to add a run on a John Thrasher home run in the third and another RBI single from TJ Ward in the fourth. Ward closed out Hartford's scoring in the sixth with a two-run double to finish with four RBIs in the game.
 
John Arel (5-3) started for Maine, throwing three innings before giving way to Eddie Emerson (two innings) and Connor Johnson (one inning). Peter Kemble pitched the three final innings for the Black Bears, not allowing the Hawks to get a hit. Nathan Florence (3-5) went 6.0 innings for Hartford while Drew Farkas threw three innings for the save.
 
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A pitchers' duel developed in game two on the day, with Cody Laweryson and Nicholas Dombkowski duking it out over the first few innings.
 
Just one hit came in the first three innings – a Hartford single to left field in the top of the second – before the squads traded home runs in the fourth.
 
After a Ward solo shot to left, Pena followed up with a deep solo shot of his own to left center.

But while Laweryson went on to retire the next and last six batters that he faced, the Black Bears put more runs on the board off of the Hartford relief pitchers.
 
Maine's eventual winning run came in the bottom of the fifth with two outs and the bases loaded. Kevin Doody – who had singled earlier in the inning – touched home plate after a balk was called. The Black Bears added an insurance run an inning later with back-to-back extra base hits. Bec's leadoff triple put him in scoring position for Casals' double.
 
Johnson entered for Laweryson in the top of the seventh and earned his second save of the season.
 
In six innings of workLaweryson allowed just two hits, one earned run and struck out one while walking none. Dombkowski went four innings, allowing one run on two hits while also striking out two and walking none.
 
The final game of the regular season for both Maine and Hartford begins tomorrow at 12 p.m. at Mahaney Diamond.  
-UMaine-