ORONO – Fierce winds and biting cold temperatures. Gray skies and snow flurries.

Those conditions enveloped Mahaney Diamond over the weekend as the University of Maine baseball team celebrated its first America East home series by taking three of four games from Albany.

The Black Bears swept Sunday, winning the opener 3-2 and posting a 14-6 victory in the second game.

On Saturday, Mike Collar and Mike MacDonald combined to allow five hits in 16 innings, but the Bears settled for a split. UMaine won the opener 6-0, but lost the nightcap 1-0 in nine innings.

UMaine improved to 26-12 overall, 8-4 in league play. Albany slipped to 18-24 (6-10 in AE).

“It was just a battle,” said UMaine coach Paul Kostacopoulos. “You just had to be tough-minded about playing and go out and do what you needed to do.”

Saturday’s doubleheader was played in cold conditions dominated by a biting 20-25 mph wind blowing in from left field. Sunday, it was colder, with no wind, and a few scattered snow flurries.

“It’s gross,” said junior catcher Alain Picard, who hit a three-run home run and a single in Sunday’s second game. “This weekend was tough because the weather wasn’t perfect and it’s always tough to battle through the conditions.”

In Sunday’s opener, Mike Ferriggi singled with one out in the seventh inning, advanced when Aaron Young walked, and scored on the second of two wild pitches as the Bears prevailed.

UMaine scratched out only three hits against Albany righthander Jeff Mazzola (1-6), but was able to take advantage of miscues by the Great Danes.

“It was a wakeup call, I guess,” Ferriggi said. “We can’t rely on [the pitchers] to win us ballgames, we’ve got win them ourselves sometimes.”

Lefthander Rich Laganiere (5-3) scattered four hits for UMaine, striking out four and walking two with a good fastball and an effective changeup.

“Today we had trouble scoring but we capitalized on their mistakes,” said Laganiere, who didn’t use his curveball much. “If I can continue to have success with two pitches, I can’t wait until I have a third one,” he laughed.

The Bears snapped a streak of 16 scoreless innings in the sixth when Young reached on an error, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Picard’s groundout. UMaine tied it 2-2 when Simon Williams walked, stole second and scored when Joe Drapeau’s high infield popup that eluded third baseman Nick Ragone.

“We went 16 innings without a run. That starts to grate on you mentally,” Kostacopoulos said, “but we got it done.”

Albany had taken a 2-0 lead in the third on Joe Lamb’s two-run homer to right field.

In Sunday’s second game, Scott Robinson pitched 4? innings of one-hit relief as UMaine finally got the bats warmed up with a 13-hit attack. Robinson (3-0) struck out three and walked two.

“The second game, I think Scott Robinson was the key,” Kostacopoulos said. “He and Rich did great jobs today in tough conditions.”

Picard stroked a three-run homer and a single to pace the hosts, who received two RBIs apiece from Drapeau (two doubles), Matt Reynolds (two singles) and Mike Livulpi (two singles).

The Bears committed an uncharacteristic five errors.

Dan Schoonmaker drilled a two-run homer for Albany, which used seven different pitchers.

In Saturday’s opener, Collar fashioned a two-hit shutout, allowing only a pair of infield singles. The sophomore righthander (5-2) struck out four and walked one.

“The wind was blowing in the whole time, so that kind of helped me out a little bit,” said Collar, who located his fastball and had a sharp-breaking slider. “I didn’t make a lot of mistakes over the middle of the plate like I had been. I got ahead most of the time.”

Albany hit only one ball out of the infield. Eddie Scott had two infield singles, including a fourth-inning come-backer that hit Collar in the right calf.

Williams tripled and scored on a Picard single in the first to provide the only run UMaine would need. He later knocked in two runs with a pop-fly double to left.

Livulpi doubled twice with an RBI for the Bears, who also got a RBI bunt single from Young.

In Saturday’s second game, Albany’s Mike Grasso reached on a bunt single, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Lamb’s sacrifice fly to left field in the ninth inning, accounting for the game’s only run.

MacDonald (4-2) was superb, allowing three singles in nine innings. He fanned eight and walked two as Albany got a runner to second base only three times.

“It’s a tough one,” MacDonald said. “I felt good today and the bounces didn’t go the way we needed them. You go some days where you give up a lot of runs and [your teammates] bail you out. These games happen.”

The Bears were unable to score in his behalf against Albany’s Steve Emmerthal (5-0), who scattered six hits utilizing an effective slow curve. UMaine twice posted back-to-back singles and two other times sacrificed runners to second base, only to go 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

“We blew a great pitching performance,” Kostacopoulos said. “Their kid pitched a great game and we didn’t make great adjustments at the plate.”

In the seventh, Brett Ouellette was hit by a pitch, advanced on Livulpi’s sacrifice bunt and took third on a wild pitch. Ferriggi flied out to shallow center field, but the Bears didn’t test center fielder Scott, whose throw was on target.

Ferriggi singled twice for the Bears and Young laid down two bunt singles.

BLACK BEARS 6, GREAT DANES 0

(Saturday’s First Game)

Albany Maine

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Grasso, 2b 2 0 0 0 Williams, lf 3 1 2

Lamb, ss 3 0 0 0 Picard, c 3 0 1

Scott, cf 3 0 2 0 Ross, dh 2 0 0

Tom, dh 3 0 0 0 Drapeau, 3b 3 0 0

Vallone, rf 3 0 0 0 Tobin, 1b 2 1 0

Schoonmaker, 1b 2 0 0 0 Ouellette, 2b 3 0

Delaney, 3b 2 0 0 0 Livulpi, cf 3 2 1

Estes, c 2 0 0 0 Ferriggi, ss 3 1 1

Farley, lf 2 0 0 0 Young, rf 3 0 1

Totals 22 0 2 0 Totals 25 6 8 6

Albany 000 000 0 ? 0

Maine 120 300 6 ? 6

E?Grasso (14), Lamb (20), Delaney (10); LOB?Albany 2; Maine 3; 2B?Williams; 3B?Williams; DP?Lamb-Schoonmaker, Grasso-Lamb-Schoonmaker; SB?Young (7)

Albany IP H R ER BB SO

Kroft (L,4-5) 6 8 6 4 2 4

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Collar (W,5-2) 7 2 0 0 1 4

T?1:34

GREAT DANES 1, BLACK BEARS 0

(Saturday’s Second Game, 9 innings)

Albany (18-22) Maine (24-12)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Grasso, 2b 4 1 1 0 Williams, lf 4 0 0

Lamb, ss 2 0 0 1 Picard, c 4 0 0

Scott, cf 4 0 0 0 Ross, dh 3 0 0

Toms, dh 3 0 0 0 Drapeau, 3b 4 0 0

Vallone, rf 3 0 1 0 Tobin, 1b 2 0 0

Schoonmaker, 1b 2 0 0 0 a-Reynolds 1 0

Delaney, 3b 2 0 1 0 Carlton, 1b 1 0 0

Muratore, c 3 0 0 0 Ouellette, 2b 3 0 0

Farley, lf 3 0 0 0 Livulpi, cf 2 0 0

Ferriggi, ss 3 0 2 0

Young, rf 3 0 2 0

Totals 26 1 3 1 Totals 30 0 6 0

a-popped out for Tobin in the sixth

Albany 000 000 001 ? 1

Maine 000 000 000 ? 0

LOB?Albany 2; Maine 6; DP?Delaney-Schoonmaker; S?Schoonmaker; Ross, Livulpi; SF?Lamb; SB?Grasso (24)

Albany IP H R ER BB SO

Emmerthal (W,5-0) 9 6 0 0 0 7

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

MacDonald (L,4-2) 9 3 1 1 2 8

HBP?Ouellette by Emmerthal; WP?Emmerthal; MacDonald; PB?Picard; T?2:10; ATT?246

BLACK BEARS 3, GREAT DANES 2

(Sunday’s First Game)

Albany Maine

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Grasso, 2b 3 1 1 0 Williams, lf 2 1 0

Lamb, ss 3 1 1 2 Ouellette, 2b 3 0 0

Scott, cf 3 0 0 0 Picard, c 3 0 1

Toms, dh 3 0 1 0 Drapeau, 3b 3 0 1

Vallone, rf 2 0 1 0 Ross, dh 2 0 0

Schoonmaker, 1b 2 0 0 0 Tobin, dh 0 0

Ragone, 3b 3 0 0 0 Carlton, 1b 3 0 0

Muratore, c 3 0 0 0 Livulpi, cf 3 0 0

Farley, lf 1 0 0 0 Ferriggi, ss 2 1 0

Young, rf 1 1 0 0

Totals 23 2 4 2 Totals 22 3 3 2

Albany 002 000 0 ? 2

Maine 000 002 1 ? 3

E?Grasso (15); Laganiere (2); LOB?Albany 3; Maine 5; HR?Lamb (2); S?Schoonmaker; Young; SB?Williams (17)

Albany IP H R ER BB SO

Mazzola (L,1-6) 6? 3 3 1 4 6

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Laganiere (W,5-3) 7 4 2 2 2 4

WP?Mazzola 3; T?1:55

BLACK BEARS 14, GREAT DANES 6

(Sunday’s Second Game)

Albany (18-24) Maine (26-12)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Grasso, 2b 4 1 1 0 Young, rf 4 2 0

Lamb, ss 3 1 0 0 Reynolds, 2b-3b 4 2 2

Crudo, lf 0 0 0 0 Picard, dh 5 2 3

Scott, cf 3 1 1 1 Drapeau, 3b-c 3 1 2

Toms, dh 4 1 1 1 Carlton, 1b 2 0 0

Vallone, rf 3 1 0 0 Izaryk, c 1 0 2

Schoonmaker, 1b 4 1 1 2 Ouellette, 2b 1 0

Estes, c 3 0 0 0 Reichley, ss 2 0 0

Ragone, 3b 3 0 0 0 Ferriggi, ss 2 0 0

Farley, lf-2b 4 0 1 1 Livulpi, cf 4 2

Williams, lf 3 2 2 1

Totals 31 6 5 5 Totals 31 14 13 12

Albany 005 010 0 ? 6

Maine 204 143 x ? 14

E?Farley (1), Borgia (1); Reynolds (2), Drapeau (7), Reichley 2 (12), Ferriggi (6); LOB?Albany 9; Maine 7; 2B?Scott; Drapeau 2, Izaryk; HR?Schoonmaker (6); Picard (5); S?Young; SB?Grasso (25), Scott (13); Young (8), Picard (9), Livulpi 2 (12)

Albany IP H R ER BB SO

Walsh ? 2 2 2 1 0

Pitt 2 3 3 3 1 2

Castoldi (L,0-1) ? 2 1 1 0 1

Ryan ? 1 1 1 1 2

Borgia 1? 3 4 3 0 1

Dubiel ? 1 3 3 2 0

Hastings ? 1 0 0 0 0

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Labelle 2? 4 5 5 1 1

Robinson (W,3-0) 4? 1 1 1 2 3

HBP?Estes, Ragone by Robinson; Drapeau by Walsh; WP?Walsh, Ryan, Hastings 2; Labelle 3; T?2:35; ATT?160