ORONO, ME – The University of Maine baseball team will host the NJIT Highlanders over the weekend of April 8-10.
 
For both teams, they come into the series tied for first in the America East Conference, along with Stony Brook, with a 7-2 record.
 
For Maine, they come into the series coming off of a weekend sweep of UMBC, outscoring the Retrievers, 45-17 over the course of the 3 games.
 
The Black Bears find themselves near the top in every offensive category in America East conference games. They lead in Batting Average (.358), Home Runs (19), Slugging % (.599), On Base % (.450) and stolen bases (28-32). They rank second in RBI's (89) and are tied for first in the fewest strikeouts in the league (57).
 
The Black Bears also finds a few players sitting atop the league in certain categories in conference action. Joe Bramanti leads the conference with 22 RBI's, 5 Home Runs and a .825 Slugging %. Jordan Schulefand leads the league in On Base % (.583) and Stolen Bases (10), while ranking 4^th in Batting Average (.481).
 
Maine finds themselves with one of the better pitching staffs in America East, as they currently hold the third best team ERA (5.44) in conference action. They also have the third most strikeouts (82) in the conference.
 
Maine's three projected starters for the weekend all find themselves near the top of the conference leaderboard in key stats. Brett Erwin (6^th ERA (3.38), 10^th hits allowed (13)), Trevor Labonte (8^th ERA (3.78), 2^nd OBA (.169), 10^th innings pitched (16.2) T-2 wins (2) T-6 hits allowed (11)) and Caleb Leys (9^th ERA (4.27). Matthew Pushard currently leads the conference with 3 saves.
 
For NJIT, they are coming off of a 2-1 weekend victory over UMass Lowell. They took game 1, 10-4, loss game 2, 1-12, and won game 3, 7-5.
 
NJIT comes to Orono with the second-best batting average (.291), 3^rd most RBI's (62) and 3^rd best OBP and Slugging %'s (.404, 479).
 
NJIT has been led offensively by Julio Marcano, who goes into the weekend series 1^st in OPS (1.368), 4^th in On Base % (.553), and 7^th in RBI's (12) in conference action.
 
The Highlands currently lead the conference in the majority of pitching categories, as they hold the lowest ERA (4.90), fewest walks (23) and hits (57).
 
Ryan Fischer has been one of the top pitchers in the conference as he holds the best ERA (1.64), most wins (3) and most innings pitched (22) in conference action. He also holds the third lowest BAA (.178), 3^rd most strikeouts (22).

Game 1 of the weekend series is set to begin Friday, April 8^th at 4:00 P.M. Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday, April 9^th at 1:00 P.M. Game 3 is scheduled for Sunday, April 10^th at Noon.
 
-UMaine-