Maine ends road trip, hosts Hartford today

The grass is brown, the turf is soggy and the weather is expected to be cloudy and cool. Nonetheless, it will be home to the University of Maine baseball team, which makes its 1995 debut at Mahaney Diamond in Orono today.

Coach John Winkin’s Black Bears take a 12-23 record, including a 6-6 league mark, into the noon North Atlantic Conference doublheader against Hartford, which comes in 6-12 and 3-5, respectively.

While the conditions are usually far from perfect for a Mahaney Diamond opener, it still is a refreshing change for the Bears. Maine played 33 road games before beating Connecticut Wednesday in Portland.

Winkin said the field shouldn’t be a problem, barring more rain.

“It’s OK. We have the tarp on it,” Winkin said Friday night. “We were able (Friday) to throw out in the outfield, so it wasn’t that bad. We had infield drills on the field.”

Maine, which was 9-11 at home last season, fields a team with a distinctive Pine Tree State flavor as 16 of the 27 roster members are from Maine. Instate starters include first baseman Brian Jolliffe of Cumberland, shortstop Keith Croteau of Saco, third baseman Nick Caiazzo of Portland, left fielder Rex Turner of Augusta, and right fielder Mat Huff of Portland.

The Bears face the possibility of going up against a former teammate today in Hartford pitcher Frank Barresi. The junior right-hander from Newington, Conn., spent three injury-plagued years at UMaine before transferring to Hartford after last season.

UMaine women’s basketball coach Joanne Palombo-McCallie spent Friday meeting with representatives of Long Beach State University in Long Beach, Calif., as part of her visit to interview as a finalist for the women’s basketball head coaching job.

Details are sketchy, but Long Beach State assistant sports information director Tony Gervase explained Friday that Palombo had met with the school’s search committee in the morning and was scheduled to get together with the sports information staff in the afternoon.

While Gervase did not know Palombo’s itinerary, he did provide some insight into Long Beach State and its women’s hoop program.

The campus is located in a city of 500,000 that is situated about three miles from the ocean and a comfortable 25 miles due south of smog-shrouded Los Angeles. The crime-riddled communities of Compton and Wilmington are nearby.

Gervase described Long Beach State as a commuter school, since only 1,500 to 2,000 of its 25,000 students live on campus.

In terms of basketball, the Forty Niners don’t appear to have much excitement. Long Beach competes in the Big West Conference and finished fifth last winter.

“We don’t have a lot of school spirit, but it’s getting better,” Gervase said.

That is a far cry from the outpouring of support Palombo and the Black Bears received last season in Orono, where they shattered school and league attendance records averaging 3,598 fans.

The construction of a new, 5,000-seat arena has generated some additional excitement. It’s an 18-story, bright blue pyramid that is known as “The Pyramid.”

The Big West is not on the strongest of leagues, especially in terms of women’s basketball. It is made up of 10 teams at present, but Nevada-Las Vegas, San Jose State and Hawaii are leaving to join the Western Athletic Conference after next season.

That leaves Long Beach State, New Mexico State, Cal-Santa Barbara, Pacific, Cal State Fullerton, Cal-Irvine and Nevada, plus any newcomers.

Long Beach State is covered by a hometown daily newspaper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, which has a circulation of 123,000. However, the Forty Niners’ smaller athletic programs are most often overshadowed by the likes of big-time sports at UCLA and USC, according to Gervase.