ORONO – The University of Maine baseball team was in dire need of breathing room against the pesky Colby College White Mules Thursday night.

Joe Drapeau was more than happy to oblige.

The 2000 America East Rookie of the Year and Freshman All-American, who leads the Bears in homers and runs batted in, walloped a long two-out, three-run homer to left-center during a seven-run fifth inning that snapped a 7-7 tie and sent the Black Bears on their way to a 15-7 victory over the Mules.

Maine is now 22-9 overall while Colby fell to 5-9.

Mark Reichley started the decisive fifth-inning rally by drawing a one-out walk and Aaron Young grounded a single to right.

Simon Williams poked a soft line-drive single to right to score Reichley. Williams stole second and, one out later, Drapeau worked the count to 2-0 before belting his 11th homer of the season off reliever Owen Kenney.

“I was surprised they pitched to him [with first base open]. I thought they’d pitch around him,” said Maine coach Paul Kostacopoulos. “They started him with a changeup off the plate, then a fastball really off the plate. They tried to sneak a fastball in on his hands but they left it out over the plate.

“That was a big hit. That took the wind out of them,” added Kostacopoulos.

An infield error and Matt Reynolds’ RBI double chased Kenney in favor of James Garrett, who was touched up for consecutive RBI doubles by Alain Picard and Pat Tobin.

Drapeau knocked in five runs with his homer, a double and a sacrifice fly. He has 43 RBIs this season.

Freshman Reynolds, filling in at second base for the injured Quin Peel, had three hits and three RBIs.

“I’m just happy to be seeing the ball well,” said Reynolds. “I had been going through a little funk for the last three games. I think I was 0-for-12. I was glad I was able to get some hits. I’ve been trying to go to right field with the ball. I did tonight, and that helped me out a lot.”

Williams, Reichley and Jon Hambelton had two hits and two RBIs apiece.

Eric Roy had four hits and two RBIs for Colby of Waterville. Andrew Tripp had three singles and an RBI and Louis Distasi homered and singled and drove in two runs.

Distasi staked Colby to a 2-0 lead in the first inning with his first homer of the season.

The Bears answered with two-run rallies in the first and second off starter Daniel Deacon.

In the first, Young walked and eventually scored on a wild pitch before Hambelton (single) crossed the plate when Drapeau deposited a double off the Bangor Savings Bank sign in left-center.

In the second, two Mule errors set the stage for Reichley’s sacrifice fly and Williams’ RBI double.

But the Mules battled back to take a 5-4 lead in the third off starter Ryan Harris and reliever Ryan Foley.

Roy’s two-out, ground-ball double to left tied it before Foley uncorked a wild pitch.

Maine answered with three in the bottom of the fourth on Reichley’s single, a walk, a passed ball, a dropped popup, Drapeau’s sacrifice fly and Reynolds’ two-run, two-out ground-ball single off the chest of sliding shortstop Kevin Brunelle, who ranged behind the bag.

The Mules pulled even for the last time in the fifth on a Roy single, a hit batsman, Distasi’s base hit, a run-scoring grounder by Tripp which was misplayed by Drapeau and Jonathan Lord’s sacrifice fly.

Eric Johnson was the pitching standout for Maine with two innings of one-hit, five-strikeout relief.

Kostacopoulos was pleased with the win, saying, “I thought we did a real good job getting people around the bases and that’s something we’ve struggled with all season. I was also happy with the fact we didn’t panic when we fell behind.”

Black Bears 15, White Mules 7

Colby (5-9) Maine (22-9)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Brunelle, ss 1 2 0 0 Young, rf 3 3 0

Geiger, ss-p 1 0 0 0 Genest, rf 2 0 0

a-Owen 1 0 1 0 Williams, lf 5 2 2

Distasi, 1b 5 1 2 2 Saunders, lf 0 0 0

Cohen, 1b 1 0 0 0 Hambelton, 1b 5 2 0

Tripp, 2b 5 1 3 1 Carlton, 1b 1 0 0

Lord, cf 4 0 1 1 Drapeau, 3b 4 1 5

Cummings, rf 3 1 1 0 Livulpi, cf 3 1 0

Irwin, rf 1 0 0 0 Reynolds, 2b 4 2 3

Goldman, dh 4 0 0 0 Ross, dh 3 0 0

Lippert, 3b 1 0 0 0 Picard, dh 2 1 1

Simard, 3b-ss 3 1 0 0 Tobin, c 5 1

b-Johnson 1 0 0 0 Reichley, ss 3 2 2

Roy, c 4 1 4 2

Domestico, c 1 0 1 0

Gibson, lf 1 0 0 0

Prinstein, lf 2 0 0 0

Totals 39 7 13 6 Totals 40 15 14 14

Colby 203 020 000 ? 7

Maine 220 370 10x ? 15

E?Brunelle, Tripp, Cummings, Simard, Kenney; Drapeau; LOB? Colby 13, Maine 10; 2B? Williams, Hambelton, Drapeau, Picard, Tobin Reichley; HR? Distasi (1); Drapeau (11); DP? Truman-Reichley-Carlton; SF? Lord; Drapeau, Reichley; SB? Young, Williams 2, Hambelton, Livulpi

Colby IP H R ER BB SO

Deacon 2 3 4 2 1 1

Kenney (L, 1-1) 2? 6 9 4 4 2

Garrett 1? 3 1 0 1 1

Geiger 1 2 1 1 0 0

Ferriter 1 0 0 0 0 1

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Harris 2? 5 5 5 4 1

Foley (W, 1-0) 3? 5 2 1 2 6

Johnson 2 1 0 0 0 5

Truman 1 2 0 0 0 0

HBP? Livulpi by Deacon; Foley by Brunelle; BK? Foley; WP?Geiger, Deacon, Foley; PB? Roy; T? 3:16; ATT? 95