Coach hopes Braves seeing error of their ways

Wanted: 1. Clutch hit. 2. Key defensive play. 3. Pitchers who consistently throw strikes.

Husson College baseball coach John Kolasinski would welcome all three but he isn’t greedy.

He doesn’t care how many of the three his Braves provide as long as they put digits in the win column.

The Braves are off to a 1-16 start, the worst in Kolasinski’s 11 years at Husson. They will also take an 0-2 Maine Athletic Conference record into a Wednesday home doubleheader against St. Joseph’s College of Standish.

Game time is 1 p.m. at the Husson field.

“We’ve tended to make errors at the worst times possible,” said Kolasinski, whose Braves have made 40 errors leading to 39 unearned runs. “They’ve killed us. The other thing is we haven’t gotten a big hit all year, one to drive in a run that puts us ahead or break somebody’s back.”

The Braves have produced only 59 runs on 141 hits, 67 walks, 9 hit batsmen and 15 opponents’ errors.

Husson has hit just one homer and been caught stealing on 13 of its 20 attempts.

Kolasinski also pointed out that his pitching staff has issued 104 walks in 124 innings.

“That’s not a very good ratio,” said Kolasinski. “Our pitching staff has shown signs of brilliance and then showed a lack of control. We’ve walked way too many people.”

Kolasinski, whose team has lost several players due to grades and team rules violations, said two of the bright spots have been freshman righthander Corey Pion of Vassalboro and sophomore right fielder John Montgomery of Millinocket.

Pion (0-0) has made five relief appearances spanning 13 1/3 innings while Montgomery is hitting a team-leading .357 with four doubles and seven RBIs.

“Corey has thrown consistently well for us. He has been a pleasant surprise,” said Kolasinski, whose Braves had a grueling spring trip to California. “John has shown us what he can do with the bat. He came on at the end of last year. He’s going to pitch a little bit, too.”

Second baseman Aaron Largay and 3B Mike King are off to .333 starts and King leads in runs scored with 10. First baseman Barrett Williams is at .327; shortstop Don Sawyer, bothered by tendinitis in his right shoulder, is at .310 and DH Chris Pickering is hitting .297. Dan Curtis, the left fielder, leads the team with nine RBIs to go with his .283 average.

Kolasinski is looking for tri-captain and center fielder Jason Cyr, a career .339 hitter, to break out of his slump. Cyr is hitting .237.

Righties James Zukowski (1-4, 4.55 earned run average) and Matt Lomax (0-2, 6.28) will start against the Monks, who are 6-0 in the conference including 6-4 and 5-1 triumphs over Husson on April 3.

The UMaine baseball team heads into the third weekend of conference play tied for second place with Towson and Drexel in America East.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos’ 16-14 Black Bears are 5-3 in league play heading into a four-game series against Towson (11-11, 5-3) after splitting at Hartford last weekend. UMaine hopes to take advantage of the parity in America East and earn one of the four postseason berths.

“It’s going to be a dogfight,” said Kostacopoulos, noting 16 of the Bears’ last 20 league games will be played at Mahaney Diamond. “When you play well, you win. When you don’t play well, you lose. It’s that close of a league this year.”

Maine, which didn’t hit the ball well against the Hawks, bounced back from a tough, one-run loss in Sunday’s first game to win the nightcap and salvage the split. The close games were beneficial for the Bears.

“There was pressure for us maybe every inning of the four-game series,” Kostacopoulos said. “We could have won three, we could have lost three. The big thing was we were able to show enough character to win the the fourth game. That was really positive.”

Freshman Mike Ross continued to produce at the plate, going 8-for-14 (.571) with seven RBIs against Hartford, including a three-run home run and an RBI double in Sunday’s 5-1 victory. Ross leads the Bears with a .389 average, six home runs, 14 doubles, 42 RBIs and 35 runs scored.

Junior Julian Bracali also showed signs thatart hitting more consistently.

Starters Rob Worcester and Rusty Tucker also turned in strong outings Sunday, with Tucker pitching a three-hitter in the win and Worcester giving up four hits in 6 2/3 innings before taking a tough loss.

“It was nice to see Rusty and Rob step up,” Kostacopoulos said. “We got three good starts (including a Saturday outing by Jim Bailin) and it’s a heck of a lot better than we’ve been doing the last two or three weeks.”

Maine plays Colby College today at 5 p.m. at Mahaney Diamond in its home opener.