UMaine superb in sweep Pitching, offense shut down Hawks

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ORONO – Great pitching Saturday. Timely hitting Sunday.

Put them together and it spelled a four-game weekend sweep for the University of Maine baseball team at Mahaney Diamond.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos’ Black Bears eclipsed the 30-win mark for the second straight year Sunday, winning the opener 9-3 and taking the second game 8-6.

Sophomore righthanders Mike Collar and Mike MacDonald were superb Saturday as UMaine won 4-1 and 2-1 in nine innings.

UMaine, 31-12, improved to 12-4 in league play and moved into a first-place tie with Vermont (12-4), which split Sunday at Albany.

The Bears took advantage of wildness by Hartford pitching and errors by Hawks (12-27, 4-12) in posting the sweep.

“It was a good weekend for us, four good wins to get us going for Wednesday [at Colby] and another big series against Stony Brook,” said senior captain Mike Ross, who homered in each of Sunday’s wins.

The Bears snapped out of their offensive doldrums in Sunday’s opener, scoring nine runs in the first two innings.

Alain Picard lined a three-run home run in the first inning and added an RBI single in the second, providing ample run support for lefthander Rich Laganiere (6-3). The sophomore scattered four hits in six innings with a career-high nine strikeouts. He walked three.

Picard’s opposite-field homer to left-center gave the hosts a 2-0 lead three batters into the game, while an RBI single by Joe Drapeau and Ross’ three-run blast off Hartford’s Jeff Swedberg (1-5) made it 6-0.

“We re-established ourselves right away and I thought we played consistent throughout the whole day,” Kostacopouos said. “I don’t think there were big lulls in our performance.”

The Bears tallied three in the second on Picard’s run-scoring single and a two-run double to left-center by freshman Aaron Izaryk.

Simon Williams singled twice in the game for the Bears.

Ron Acabbo paced the Hawks with a two-run homer in the third and a single. Matt Denorfia had two singles.

In Sunday’s second game, Brett Ouellette stroked a two-run homer to right field to spark a four-run sixth inning that carried UMaine to victory.

Ouellette hit his first collegiate homer off loser Brian Mascaro after Matt Reynolds had singled with one out in the inning.

“If you’re going to get your first one, it might as well be a meaningful one and it definitely was, us being down a run,” Ouellette said of the hit that gave UMaine a 6-5 lead.

UMaine scored two more big runs in the inning. Joe Drapeau singled, Mike Ferriggi reached on a dropped fly ball and Mike Livulpi looped an RBI single to left. A throwing error on the play also allowed Ferriggi to score.

“Brett came up with a big two-run home run and we had a couple other guys chip in with big hits and we were able to break it open in the sixth inning,” Ross said.

Ryan Harris (4-1) earned his second relief win of the series, allowing two hits and two runs in two innings. Adam Labelle picked up the save, his third.

In Saturday’s second game, MacDonald continued his outstanding pitching but the Bears couldn’t scratch out any runs until after his departure in the ninth.

The sophomore righty afforded the Hawks only Keith Mirante’s bad-hop single in the sixth before he was lifted after walking two batters with one out in the ninth. MacDonald equaled a career high with nine strikeouts, walked seven and hit a batter.

“I’m kind of fed up not getting runs for Mac,” said UMaine’s Livulpi. “[We should] take him out to dinner or something. He’s been pitching unbelievable and we’ve been struggling at the plate a little bit when he’s in there.”

MacDonald (4-2) has allowed only 14 hits and four earned runs in his last 31? innings (a stingy 1.15 earned run average). UMaine has managed only one run on his behalf in his last two outings, covering 17? innings.

MacDonald is trying to take the situation in stride.

“I think you have to keep concentrating, bearing down and keep giving our guys a chance to get up there and score some runs,” MacDonald said. “You can’t complain. They battled that last inning [Saturday], they gutted out a couple runs and we got a win.”

The Bears finally scored in the ninth – after starter Scott Roy had been lifted with two outs in the eighth after blanking UMaine on four hits.

Ouellette opened the ninth with an infield single to the shortstop hole. Mascaro went to a 2-0 count on Reynolds and was lifted in favor of Miguel Marichal, who issued two more balls for the walk.

The runners moved up on a wild pitch and, one out later, pinch hitter Izaryk beat out an RBI infield hit to shortstop to make it 1-1. The winning run scored from second when shortstop Denorfia threw wide of second base on Livulpi’s fielder’s choice grounder.

In Saturday’s opener, Collar scattered four hits to outduel Hartford’s Jarrett Stawarz, who pitched a two-hitter.

Collar (6-2) allowed three hits among the first five batters he faced, including Acabbo’s solo homer in the first. However, he limited the Hawks to one hit the rest of the way, striking out six, walking two and hitting a batter.

UMaine trailed 1-0 after a half-inning, but tallied four unearned runs in the bottom of the first.

Williams reached with one out when first baseman Ryan Cuscovitch failed to handle his soft liner. Williams stole second, took third on a wild-pitch ball four to Picard, and scored when Drapeau grounded into a 6-4 fielder’s choice on which second baseman Ryan Waldron dropped the ball.

One out later, Ouellette was hit by a pitch. The second run scored on another wild pitch, then Livulpi ripped a two-run double past first.

Ross’ bunt single in the third was the Bears’ only other hit off Stawarz (2-7), who fanned five, walked five and hit two.

BLACK BEARS 4, HAWKS 1

(Saturday’s First Game)

Hartford Maine

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Langer, cf 3 0 0 0 Young, rf 2 0 0

Denorfia, ss 3 0 1 0 Williams, lf 2 1 0

Acabbo, 3b 2 1 1 1 Picard, c 2 0 0

Marichal, dh 3 0 1 0 Drapeau, 3b 3 1 1

Cuscovitch, 1b 3 0 1 0 Ross, dh 3 0

Parker, rf 3 0 0 0 Ouellette, 2b 0 1 0

Waldron, 2b 3 0 0 0 Livulpi, cf 3 0 2

Moyer, lf 1 0 0 0 Carlton, 1b 2 0 0

Mirante, c 3 0 0 0 Ferriggi, ss 3 0 0

Totals 24 1 4 1 Totals 20 4 2 3

Hartford 100 000 0 ? 1

Maine 400 000 0 ? 4

E?Cuscovitch (5), Waldron (9); LOB?Hartford 5; Maine 5; 2B?Livulpi; HR?Acabbo (4); SB?Williams 2 (19), Ross (14), Livulpi (13)

Hartford IP H R ER BB SO

Stawarz (L,2-7) 6 2 4 0 5 5

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Collar (W,6-2) 7 4 1 1 2 6

HBP?Ouellette by Stawarz 2; Moyer by Collar; WP?Stawarz 3; PB?Picard; T?2:00

BLACK BEARS 2, HAWKS 1

(Saturday’s Second Game, 9 innings)

Hartford Maine

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Langer, cf 3 0 0 0 Livulpi, cf 5 0 0

Denorfia, ss 4 0 0 0 Williams, lf 2 0 0

Acabbo, 3b 2 0 0 0 Picard, c 4 0 0

Marichal, lf-p 2 1 0 0 Drapeau, dh 3 0

Cuscovitch, 1b 3 0 0 0 b-Saunders 0 0

Parker, rf 3 0 1 1 Tobin, 1b 3 0 0

Waldron, 2b 4 0 0 0 Ouellette, 2b 4 1 0

Topp, dh 3 0 0 0 Reichley, 3b 2 0 0

Moyer, lf 0 0 0 0 a-Carlton 1 0 0

Mirante, c 1 0 1 0 Reynolds, 3b 0 1 0

Ferriggi, ss 4 0 0 0

Young, rf 3 0 0 0

c-Izaryk 1 0 1 1

Totals 25 1 2 1 Totals 32 2 6 1

a-grounded out for Reichley in the seventh; b-ran for Drapeau in the eighth; c-singled for Young in the ninth

Hartford 000 000 001 ? 1

Maine 000 000 002 ? 2

E?Denorfia (10), Waldron (10); LOB?Hartford 6; Maine 10; 2B?Picard; DP?Reichley-Ouellette-Tobin; S?Langer; SB?Acabbo (5); Livulpi (14), Williams (20), Ouellette (3)

Hartford IP H R ER BB SO

Roy 72/3 4 0 0 4 13

Mascaro (L,1-4) 1/3 1 2 2 1 1

Marichal 1/3 1 0 0 0 1

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

MacDonald 81/3 1 1 1 7 9

Harris (W,4-1) 2/3 1 0 0 0 1

HBP?Marichal by MacDonald; WP?Marichal; MacDonald, Harris; T?2:45; ATT?308

BLACK BEARS 9, HAWKS 3

(Sunday’s First Game)

Hartford Maine

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Langer, cf 3 0 0 0 Livulpi, cf 2 1 0

Denorfia, ss 4 1 2 0 Young, cf 1 0 0

Acabbo, 3b 3 1 2 2 Williams, lf 4 1 0

Marichal, dh 2 0 0 0 Picard, c 3 2 3

Cuscovitch, 1b 3 0 0 0 Carlton, 1b 2 0

Moyer, rf 2 0 0 0 Izaryk, dh 2 1 2

Waldron, lf 1 0 0 0 Ouellette, 2b 3 0 0

a-Atnes 1 0 0 0 Drapeau, 3b 3 1 1

Mirante, c 3 1 1 0 Ross, rf 2 1 3

O’Neill, 2b 2 0 0 0 Ferriggi, ss 3 0 0

b-Trahan 1 0 1 0

Totals 26 3 6 2 Totals 25 9 8 9

a-grounded out for Waldron in the seventh; b-singled for O’Neill in the seventh

Hartford 000 200 1 ? 3

Maine 630 000 x ? 9

E?Ouellette (7); LOB?Hartford 5; Maine 4; 2B?Izaryk; HR?Acabbo (5); Picard (6), Ross (7); DP?Ferriggi-Ouellette-Carlton; SB?Livulpi (15), Picard 2 (11), Carlton (1), Ross (15)

Hartford IP H R ER BB SO

Swedberg (L,1-5) 1 1/3 5 9 9 3 3

Ferris 4 2/3 3 0 0 2 3

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Laganiere (W,6-3) 6 4 2 2 3 9

Labelle 1 2 1 0 0 0

HBP?Livulpi by Swedberg; T?1:58

BLACK BEARS 8, HAWKS 6

(Sunday’s Second Game)

Hartford (12-27) Maine (31-12)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Langer, cf 4 0 1 1 Livulpi, cf 4 1 2

Denorfia, ss 4 0 0 0 Williams, lf 3 0 0

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

Cuscovitch, 1b 4 1 1 0 Carlton, 1b 4 0

Waldron, lf 3 1 1 1 Ross, rf 3 2 1

Parker, rf 3 1 1 2 Reynolds, 3b 3 1 0

Mirante, c 2 0 0 0 Ouellette, 2b 2 1 2

Moyer, c 1 0 0 0 Drapeau, c 3 2 0

Topp, dh 2 0 0 0 Reichley, ss 1 0 0

O’Neill, 2b 3 1 1 1 a-Tobin 1 0 0 0

Ferriggi, ss 1 1 0 0

Totals 28 6 6 6 Totals 28 8 10 5

a-grounded out for Reichley in the fifth

Hartford 000 302 1 ? 6

Maine 010 124 x ? 8

E?Parker (1), Mirante (6); Reynolds (3), Robinson (2); LOB?Hartford 7; Maine 5; 2B?Langer, Parker, O’Neill; Livulpi, Williams, Ross, Drapeau; HR?Acabbo (6); Ross (8), Ouellette (1); S?Mirante; SB?Acabbo (6); Ouellette (4)

Hartford IP H R ER BB SO

Marichal 4 1/3 6 4 4 2 4

Mascaro (L,1-5) 1 3 3 2 0 3

Cekovsky 2/3 1 1 0 1 0

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Robinson 4 3 3 3 2 5

Harris (W,4-1) 2 2 2 2 2 1

Labelle (S,3) 1 1 1 1 1 1

WP?Marichal 3, Cekovsky; Robinson 2, Harris; PB?Mirante; T?2:22; ATT?402