ORONO – No long bus ride. No lukewarm pizza on the run. No hotel room. No hectic schedule to keep.

There’s no place like home and the University of Maine baseball team will enjoy its first America East home series this weekend when it entertains league newcomer Albany Saturday and Sunday at Mahaney Diamond.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos’ Black Bears played 30 of their first 32 games outside Maine and emerged with a 22-10 record. And though the outfield might be a little soggy and the weather lukewarm, the Bears are thrilled to be back home.

“It’s definitely a big difference playing up here,” said Mike Ross, UMaine’s only senior. “It’s a good feeling not to have to go on that long bus ride, stay in a hotel. You can sleep in your own bed.”

Playing at Mahaney Diamond means being able to hang out with family and friends and a more laid-back atmosphere before and after the games.

“It’s a lot more fun to play at home,” said junior Alain Picard. “You get a lot more time to relax. You don’t have to think about so many things.”

The numbers seem to bear out the fact UMaine boasts a significant home-field advantage. The Bears are 26-5 in Orono dating back to the start of the 2000 season.

“It’s going to feel real good to be at home this weekend,” Picard said. “We’re going to be here for the next two weeks. It’s fun to have some of your [fellow] students come down and support you. It’s encouraging.”

One of the big reasons is the fan support enjoyed by the Bears. While UMaine has only eight home dates this year, the same number as in 2001, an average of 376 fans turned out to watch the Bears at home games last season.

“It’s great to be back here,” said sophomore Simon Williams of Portland. “On the road, the fans don’t become a real big factor. We’ve got people supporting us up here and our first home game we had quite a few people (448). It’s great to play in front of a couple hundred people.”

Winning is usually harder on the road, even though playing on opponents’ home fields is routine for UMaine.

“For the circumstances, we’ve been doing real well,” Williams said. “It really wears on you, but to get back here and be in a pretty good position, to start playing your home games is great.”

Kostacopoulos equated making long bus trips as a team to taking a family vacation in the car.

“You’re all happy with each other the first three or four days, then it starts to dwindle a little bit,” he said. “It’s great for a while, then it gets to everybody.”

The Bears are especially intent on getting back to the business of winning after dropping three of four games last weekend in a league series at Vermont.

“We really didn’t play that well in every facet of the game last weekend,” Ross said. “We’ve been working on things.”

“We’ve worked on some important stuff that maybe we were lacking last week,” Picard said.

UMaine also will have the benefit of batting last, which provides more opportunities to make strategic lineup moves.

“It changes your strategy, how you use your pitching,” Kostacopoulos said. “There’s a strategic advantage to hitting in the bottom half of the inning.”

UMaine earns 1,500th victory

With Wednesday’s win over Central Connecticut, the UMaine baseball team achieved a milestone in the history of the program.

The victory was the 1,500th for the Black Bears in 120 seasons since the inception of the baseball program in 1888.