ORONO – Jon Dickinson and Jared Cochran are the only University of Maine pitchers who worked more than one inning last season.

The sophomores are joined this spring by a junior college transfer, a sophomore refugee from New Hampshire, a rehabilitated rookie, and six freshmen. That inexperience has led to inconsistency on the mound for the Black Bears.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos is searching for the right mix as Maine moves into the third week of its America East schedule. The Bears rank last in the league with an 8.72 earned run average, having surrendered 11.4 hits per outing.

The staff has issued 4.9 walks per game, second only to Drexel’s 5.7 average. And while the Bears have utilized most of their 11 pitchers regularly, they haven’t found the core of a starting rotation.

“A couple of our guys are still trying to find that first good performance,” Kostacopoulos said. “We’re getting a lot of the mistakes out of the way and we’re able to correct them.”

If Maine is to earn one of four postseason spots, it must find a handful of dependable pitchers.

“It’s a revolving door. You can get in easy and you can come out easy,” Kostacopoulos said.

“If you’ve given kids ample opportunities… and the results aren’t what you want, give someone else a chance,” he said.

Eight pitchers have started at least one game. Only junior lefthander Tom Koutrouba, and sophomore righty Eric O’Brien have pitched exclusively as starters.

Koutrouba, from the Community College of Rhode Island, is 3-3 with a 7.44 ERA. His 37 strikeouts rank fourth in America East, but he has allowed 65 hits in 38 2/3 innings.

Despite his lack of Division I experience, Koutrouba is in the awkward position of being the No. 1 starter on an untested staff that looks to him for leadership.

“I’m a junior, but I’d like to see somebody a little bit older than myself who knew what to expect,” Koutrouba said. “There’s a lot of responsibility with the No. 1 spot. Sometimes it’s not that easy, but I think I’ve handled it pretty well.”

O’Brien, who pitched last year at New Hampshire, is 2-3 with a 9.21 ERA. He has pitched well in spurts, but has allowed nine home runs among 19 extra-base hits.

Dickinson, a regular starter last season, made his first start of ’98 Sunday at Towson. The righthander improved to 2-0 and lowered his team-best ERA to 2.65 with 5 2/3 innings of four-hit ball.

He said the sense of competition should prove beneficial.

“Everybody’s fighting for a position and I think it makes it better because you have to perform well every time you go out there,” Dickinson said. “It’s going to make everybody else better.”

While Dickinson was a bright spot last weekend, two of the Bears’ starters failed to get through three innings and another didn’t last four.

Freshmen Jim Bailin (0-2, 9.43 ERA) and Jason Hall (0-4, 16.92) have made four starts each, but have been inconsistent. Freshman righties Rick Hewey (1-3, 6.14 ERA) and Rob Worcester have been steady in relief.

Kostacopoulos looks for improvement from freshmen Tom Morelli, Brian Pugh and Brandon Brewer, along with soph righty Jared Cochran of Norridgewock.

“Our staff is young. It just takes a little bit of time for people to get used to certain things,” Koutrouba said. “The sooner we get a grasp on a solid starting rotation and everybody’s loose, I think we’re going to snap into it.”

Until the pitching situation settles down, the UMaine revolving door will continue to spin.