ORONO - The University of Maine baseball team split their first day of a weekend set with UMass-Lowell on Saturday afternoon, as
Jeff Mejia delviered a two-out, two-RBI base hit to lift Maine to victory in walkoff fashion in game one.
To see the Maine offense was stagnant to start game one would be an understatement, as Maine recorded just two singles in the first six innings. As the game entered the final frame, Maine trailed 2-0.
Sean Lawlor and
Quinn McDaniel worked walks and
Ryan Turenne picked up a single to load the bases with two outs for
Colin Plante, who worked a walk after a long at bat to give Maine their first run. The next batter was
Jeff Mejia, who ended the game in style;
Nick Sinacola was delivered his eighth victory of the season by Mejia's hit, as Sinacola went all seven innings for the fourth time this season while striking out 11. He broke the record for strikeouts in an America East season (78, Sean Newcomb of Hartford, 2013) and he became just the second Black Bear in program history to eclipse the 100-strikeout threshold in a season. Nick is now just one shy of tying Larry Thomas' 1991 season that saw a program record 108 strikeouts, as Nick sits at 107 in 57.1 innings of work.
Game two saw the Black Bear offense stir in a slightly more significant way, tallying ten hits and four runs to carry a 4-2 lead into the seventh. That, however, is where the Maine bullpen lost its way, giving up four runs and the lead in the inning as the Black Bears failed to recover and lost by a 6-4 final.
Jeff Mejia was the center of the Maine offense, driving in three of Maine's seven runs on the day and tallying four hits total. He now rides a seven-game hit streak and has raised his batting average on the season to .309. He only trails
Sean Lawlor now for the team batting average lead, who smacked his first triple of the season and drove in a pair of runs today to maintain his .355 average and mammoth offensive season.
Maine will get back to work tomorrow afternoon at exactly noon, another set with the Riverhawks at Mahaney on AmericaEast.tv.
