The University of Maine baseball team, fresh off an outstanding regular season, goes into this week’s America East Championship as the No. 1 seed.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos’ 36-14 Black Bears wrapped up the conference regular-season title Saturday when all three league doubleheaders, including UMaine’s scheduled games at Binghamton, were rained out. The Bears posted a 16-6 America East record and finished two games ahead of No. 2 Vermont (27-19, 14-8).

UMaine, which claimed its first regular-season crown in baseball since 1993, takes on No. 4 Stony Brook (26-22) in Thursday’s 7 p.m. first-round game. The four-team, double-elimination tournament will be played at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.

Second-seeded Vermont meets No. 3 Northeastern (26-20) in Thursday’s 3:30 p.m. opener.

The Bears are happy with the league title, but are focusing on the tournament.

“That’s for our own personal pride, but our biggest thing right now is preparation;” Kostacopoulos said, “can we prepare in the next three days and come out of practice ready to go into a championship atmosphere?”

America East is awarded one of 30 automatic bids into the 64-team NCAA Tournament. The league champion advances to one of 16 four-team NCAA Regionals.

UMaine enters the postseason on a positive note after beating Binghamton twice Friday. Sophomore righthanders Mike Collar of Scarborough and Mike MacDonald of Camden each pitched a shutout.

The Bears, who have won 14 of their last 17 games, pounded out 24 hits in the twinbill.

“All the indicators tell me that we’re ready to go, but you’ve still got to play,” Kostacopoulos said. “That’s what makes the postseason so much fun.”

UMaine achieved varied levels of success against the other three tournament teams. The Bears swept four at Northeastern, split with Stony Brook and dropped three of four at Vermont.

“There’s not a big difference in teams,” Kostacopoulos said. “I think every team is very comfortable with its [Nos.] 1 and 2 pitchers.”

UMaine hopes to take advantage of playing on its home field. The Bears are 1-4 in their last two postseason appearances in 1999 and 2001, but have won 35 of their last 43 at Mahaney, where they’re 11-3 this season.

The league tournament hasn’t been played in Orono since 1996, when UMaine was seeded second and was eliminated by Hartford in the third round.

“One of the lifts that we’re hoping for on the emotional side is that we get a crowd that’s behind us,” Kostacopoulos said. “We’re hoping some of that home-field stuff can work for us. That may be something we can capitalize on.”

Going into the last week of the regular season, UMaine led America East in batting with a .317 overall average. However, the Bears were hitting only .266 in conference play.

First-round opponent Stony Brook was hitting a league-low .265 and was averaging 5.8 runs per game. However, the Seawolves feature strong defense and steady pitching.

“They play the game very well,” Kostacopoulos said. “They’re well-coached and they know what they’re doing.”

Vermont features an excellent balance of pitching, timely hitting and fundamentals. The Catamounts know how to execute.

“Vermont has really good pitching, they run the bases well and they handle the bat well,” Kostacopoulos said. “They sacrifice, they squeeze; they play a lot of small ball and they’re very good at it.”

Northeastern led the way in the pitching department, having posted a 3.77 team earned run average and a league-low 119 walks (2.7 per game).

“Northeastern has strength in pitching. They’re a young team that has improved throughout the course of the year,” Kostacopoulos said.

America East tourney tickets on sale

Tickets for this week’s America East Championship at Mahaney Diamond in Orono are on sale at the UMaine athletic ticket office.

All-session ticket books, which cover the entire tournament, are $15 each. Individual game tickets cost $6 per person, although high school and college students with ID can purchase tickets for $2 .

For more information, call the ticket office at 581-2327 or 1-800-756-8732.