Go West young Mainers Bears look for fun in California sun

ORONO – As the University of Maine Black Bears talked about where they might be sent for an NCAA Regional, they jokingly mentioned enjoying some fun in the southern California sun.

California, here they come!

UMaine, which won its first America East Baseball Championship Saturday, is headed for Los Angeles. The 40-15 Black Bears are seeded third in the Los Angeles Regional and face 16th-ranked Cal State Northridge, the No. 2 seed at 40-15, Friday in a 10 p.m. first-round game.

“When they said ‘California’ the atmosphere was incredible,” said junior catcher Alain Picard. “It’s weird to have this feeling. We’re going to Regionals and we get a shot at going to the [College] World Series. It’s awesome.”

UMaine, which will make the program’s 13th Regional appearance and its first since 1993, earned one of 30 automatic bids for the 64-team NCAA Tournament by virtue of its conference championship.

Top-seeded and 21st-ranked host Southern California (34-22) meets No. 4 Brigham Young (29-29-1) in Friday’s 6 p.m. opener at the four-team, double-elimination event.

UMaine players, coaches, administrators and staff gathered Monday afternoon in Dexter Lounge at Alfond Arena to watch the selection show on ESPN2-TV. When the announcer identified the Bears as bound for L.A., team members cheered, clapped and giddily celebrated the moment.

“It’s just excitement,” said junior Joe Drapeau of Biddeford. “Just to see your name pop up on the list like that with all those other teams… it’s exciting.”

Being sent to Los Angeles and earning a No. 3 seed were surprises for coach Paul Kostacopoulos and the Bears, but the decision to send UMaine so far was contrary to the NCAA’s new selection criteria.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the NCAA directed its championship committees to significantly reduce air travel by making Regionals more geographically based.

Because no teams from the Northeast submitted bids to host baseball Regionals (Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., was the closest), teams such as Maine, Central Connecticut, Harvard and Marist (New York) were sent packing.

Marist is bound for Nebraska, Harvard heads for Houston and CentConn also will trek to Texas.

“They’ve all been shipped out. We just happen to be going the farthest,” Kostacopoulos said. “I thought the interesting thing was that we were a third seed in that bracket, but you’ve got to play them all and the level of baseball is so high.”

While only 11 teams are flying to Regionals this spring, as compared to 22 a year ago, UMaine would have flown to its destination, regardless of the location. The players don’t seem to mind.

“We’re playing in warm weather, that was the first thing I liked,” said sophomore pitcher Mike MacDonald of Camden. “We’re just all excited to be playing in a Regional tournament. This has been one of our goals all year and to accomplish it is a great thing.”

Paul Bruder chose UMaine in part because of last season’s success. The freshman pitcher is pleased with his decision.

“I’m pretty much speechless right now. There’s so many emotions running,” Bruder said. “It was pretty obvious what kind of program we have here. I think we stepped up a level this year and showed that.”

UMaine’s placement as the No. 3 seed at Los Angeles means the Bears avoid facing USC (34-22) in the first round. It may also reflect the fact UMaine won 40 games for the first time since 1991 and only the fourth time in program history.

However, Cal State Northridge is ranked higher than USC in the national polls and is a tough draw.

“Obviously, all three [other] schools in the Regional are exceptional schools,” said Kostacopoulos, who pointed out the Bears were 16-3 in their last 19 games. “I think [the committee] might have taken that into account.”

A key challenge for Kostacopoulos and his staff is to help the players buoy their emotions.

“We spent a tremendous amount of emotion and energy to win the conference tournament because of where we had to come back from,” Kostacopoulos said. “That saps you a little bit and then you’re sitting around saying, ‘hey, we’re going to Los Angeles, California. The giddiness, you’ve got to bring that back to a workable level.”