A bizarre first week had a happy ending for 18th-year University of Maine Coach John Winkin and his baseball team on their spring trip to Louisiana and Florida.

The Louisiana portion of their trip yielded a 4-7 record but three of the last four games produced wins over nationally-ranked teams (two over Oklahoma State and one over Southwestern Louisiana) and the Louisiana Classics Tournament championship at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

The other win was a season-opening 12-5 win over nationally ranked Louisiana State. The win was followed by six consecutive losses in which the Bears were outscored by an average of 12-3.

“We’ve started to jell,” said Winkin from his hotel room in Orlando, Fla. “The pitching has really come around.”

Sophomore righthander Mark Ballard’s 10-hit complete-game win over Oklahoma State (4-3) in the first game of the tournament “got us off winging” according to the Bear boss.

“That caught the eyes of the scouts,” said Winkin. “He looked like a guy who could turn into a (Ben) Burlingame-type of pitcher. Then Jason Rajotte pitched extremely well (4-hit, 4-1 six-inning win over Southwestern Louisiana). He isn’t a Larry Thomas yet but he looks like the guy who could take his spot. Ronnie Hewes pitched very well and deserved a better fate (in a 6-5 loss to Creighton). We messed up a double play and that hurt him.”

Ace righty Mike D’Andrea survived eight walks and six runs over 6 2/3 innings to beat Oklahoma State 9-7 on Sunday and sew up the tourney title. D’Andrea struck out 12.

“From the third inning on, D’Andrea pitched as well as he ever has,” said Winkin.

It appears as though those four have nailed down the berths in the starting rotation for the upcoming North Atlantic Conference schedule, which begins with a four-game set at the University of Delaware on March 21-22.

Winkin said freshmen righthanders Ryan Smith and Doug McEwen have emerged as the setup men out of the bullpen with Val Beaudet and Bob Zurinskas being the closers. Beaudet had a good outing in absorbing the loss to Creighton and Zurinskas, after three shaky outings, picked up the save in the second Oklahoma State win.

The Maine coach feels his defense was outstanding in the tournament.

“Our infield is as good as anybody’s,” said Winkin. “And Chad White is an outstanding center fielder. He gives us one of the best throwing center fielders that we’ve had in years.”

Maine entered Monday’s game against Rollins College hitting .273 as a team and averaging 4.8 runs per game. Opponents were hitting .317 and averaging 8.7 runs per game. However, 74 of the opponents’ 96 runs were scored during Maine’s six-game losing streak.

The top offensive weapons for Maine were second baseman Tim Scott (.368, 5 runs batted in), RF Glen Stupienski (.293, 8 RBIs), catcher Shawn Tobin (.293, 4 RBIs) and pitcher-DH D’Andrea (.286, 3 RBIs). Scott entered Monday’s game with a six-game hitting streak (9-for-21). The other regulars have been SS Brian Seguin (.268), 1B Gabe Duross (.267, 7 RBIs), CF White (.258, 6 RBIs), 3B Shanan Knox (.195) and LF Justin Tomberlin (.175).

White is switch-hitting this season.

Reserve OF-DH Chris Altomari was 5-for-12 (.417) with 3 RBIs and back-up C Steve Puleo 4-for-7 (.571, 2 RBIs).

Ballard, Scott and White were chosen to the All-Tourney team at USL.

“We don’t have an easy out in the lineup,” said Winkin. “We’ve faced some real good pitching and it will be to our benefit. I would like to see a little more out of the top five hitters in the order.”

Winkin is hoping his team can continue to play well during the second week of the trip and avoid the letdown he felt it had following the three-game series at Louisiana State.