ORONO, ME – The University of Maine baseball team is heading out on the road as they will be facing off against the UMBC Retrievers from Friday, April 1 through Sunday, April 3.
 
For the Black Bears, they are coming off of a 1-2 weekend against the Stony Brook Seawolves and a 4-2 start to conference action. The Black Bears took game one at home, 10-9, but lost the Saturday and Sunday matchups, 2-6 and 2-8, respectively.
 
Maine is being led by their incredible offense to begin conference play, as they are tied for the conference lead in home runs (12), leading in stolen bases (21) and are second in batting average (.310), RBI's (52) and Slugging % (.525).
 
The breakout star for the Black Bears has been Jake Rainess, who currently finds himself leading or top 3 in almost every statistical category in the America East. Rainess has the 3^rd best batting average (.520), the best OPS and Slugging % (1.434, .840), tied for second in home runs (2) and 8^th in stolen bases (4).
 
Quinn McDaniel currently leads the conference in conference games with 3 home runs, he is tied for 4^th in RBI's with 4, and his 7 for 7 on stolen bases has him tied for second.
 
Joe Bramanti is 3^rd in America East play with 10 RBI's and he his tied for second in home runs with 2.
 
UMBC has had some strong performances to begin the season on the offensive side of the ball in route to their 4-2 start in America East action. Luke Johnson ranks 4^th in batting average (.467).
 
Drew Robinson and Tony Krueger currently rank 1 and 2 in the conference for RBI's, with them having 14 and 12, respectively.
 
Evan Selmer has been a rock for the Retrievers bullpen, as his 1.35 ERA is second lowest in the conference and his 2 saves is tied for first.
 
In 2021, Maine won the series over UMBC, 2-1. Maine took game 1 and 2 by final scores of 4-1 and 10-2, but UMBC grabbed their lone win over Maine is the series finale, 7-1.
 
First pitches on the weekend are scheduled for 6:00 P.M., 2:00 P.M., and 12:00 P.M.
 
-UMaine-