ORONO – Approximately 200 curious baseball fans got their first glimpses of Kosty Ball on Saturday evening at Mahaney Diamond as first-year Maine coach Paul Kostacopoulos made his debut in a fall exhibition game against America East rival Northeastern.

The fans saw the Bears run the bases much more aggressively than they did under former 22-year coach John Winkin and execute a couple of hit-and-runs.

The Bears executed a double steal and a double tag, which teams like Miami of Florida have utilized successfully against them.

On a double tag, two runners tag up and advance on a fly-ball out.

They also saw both teams make plenty of mistakes and kick the ball around as is often the case in fall baseball. Maine won Saturday’s game 15-13 and rallied for a 9-8 triumph on Sunday.

“He [Kostacopoulos] has made it fun for them again,” observed NU catcher Pat Mason. “They were getting bored with their style of play the last few years. Kostacopoulos has rejuvenated them a little.”

NU first baseman Mike O’Donnell was recruited by the former Providence College head coach and called Kostacopoulos a “great” recruiter.

“He gets his players fired up. They like playing for him,” said O’Donnell. “He gets the runners moving. He’s really strategic in what he does.”

Northeastern coach Neil McPhee went as far as to tab Kostacopoulos as “the best young coach in New England. He was a great choice for Maine. It won’t be long until he brings them back to where John [Winkin] put them for so many years. He’s just got a great way about him; he has a great system and he has great contacts all over. He does a complete job as a coach.

“I keep joking with him. I told him now he has the jewel of New England. He is at the number one school in New England in terms of resources that they put into baseball,” added McPhee.

Kostacopoulos coached third and showed he is very much a hands-on coach.

Following a disastrous inning, he called his team together.

“I talked to them about pitching with a lead. I told them they had to throw strikes and they couldn’t take 30 seconds between pitches because, inevitably, you always make an error after that and that’s what Ronnie Coombs did [by dropping a fly ball]. I also told them they have to be able to play a full game and get the job done. We need to create the mentality that we’re going to win,” said Kostacopoulos.

The Maine players talked about Kostacopoulos’ enthusiasm and said there has been a lot more teaching in the fall program.

“So far it’s been great,” said junior third baseman T.J. Sheedy. “Everyone is upbeat. He’s really demanding. We’ve been doing a lot of basic stuff that needs to be done, stuff we’ve never done before. We’ve become more aggressive on the bases and by being more aggressive and taking the extra base, that should be good for two or three more runs per game.

“We play only two or three intrasquad games a week and, even then, we take ground balls and do other stuff. We used to play nine or 10-inning games every day and they would be three hours long like this one. It was boring,” said Sheedy.

Kostacopoulos enjoyed his debut.

“We ran the bases hard. We made some mistakes but we hustled. Having 200 people for a fall game is great. We had fun tonight. I had fun coaching,” said Kostacopoulos.

(Saturday Night, 8 inns.) Northeastern 301 070 02 – 13 14 6 Maine 606 102 0x – 15 12 4

Zack, Brazee (2), Bonehill (4), Donohue (7) and Mason, Paulucci (6); Glover, Wiles (4), Hamilton (5), Quinn (6), Catlin (7) and Caiazzo

(Sunday Afternoon)

Northeastern 201 400 010 – 8 12 4 Maine 001 000 332 9 12 2 McManus, Burns (4), Kotarski (7), Kelley (8) and Mason; Kowal, Dickinson (3), Gosselin (4), Cochran (7), Wickett (8) and Jarvais