Martin, UMaine defeat Colby

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ORONO – The University of Maine baseball team has had an penchant for big innings this season.

That was true again Tuesday night.

Greg Creek’s broken-bat, two-run single capped a five-run fifth inning that broke open a close game and sent the Bears on their way to a 9-3 victory over the Colby College Mules at Mahaney Diamond.

The Bears’ eighth win in their last nine games upped their record to 27-11 entering a Wednesday game against Holy Cross in Sanford.

Maine led 2-1 when Steve Gambale, the No. 9 hitter, started the fifth-inning rally by legging out an infield hit to shortstop. The Bears then caught a break when Mike Livulpi’s sharp, one-hop shot to the right of Mules shortstop Kevin Brunelle was dropped by Brunelle for an error.

Aaron Izaryk walked to load the bases and Alain Picard hit a sacrifice fly to deliver Gambale. Joe Drapeau scored Livulpi with a sinking, line-drive single in front of diving right fielder Tyler Hales and Izaryk raced to third.

Brett Ouellette ripped a single to left-center to score Izaryk and that chased Colby starter and loser Kevin Presbrey in favor of Andrew Jenkins.

Jenkin’s first delivery was a wild pitch and Creek punched a 1-1 pitch into center field, breaking his bat in the process.

“When I was 9 or 10, I came up here to watch Miami play and [Hurricanes catcher] Charles Johnson broke his bat in half while hitting one of his two homers. That’s the only time I had ever seen an aluminum bat break,” said Creek. “I got out on my front foot and I had only one hand on the bat when I hit it. If it hadn’t broken, it would have probably been just a fly ball to center.”

Ouellette said the Bears have been able to capitalize “when other teams have made errors” lately. “We’ve stayed out of double plays and have been able to keep innings going,” he added.

Colby (7-17-1) opened the scoring in the second inning when Rodney Ames was hit by a pitch, Brandon Royce lined a double to left and Hales hit a sacrifice fly.

Jared Cushman followed with an infield single but Bears starter and winner Troy Martin pitched out of further trouble by inducing a fly ball to left and notching one of his five strikeouts.

Maine took the lead for good in the third when Simon Williams belted his third homer of the season, a leadoff blast to left, and Gambale walked and eventually scored on Drapeau’s sacrifice fly.

Colby got one back in the sixth on singles by Matt Gibson and Brunelle, Gibson’s stolen base and Eric Roy’s groundout but Ouellette opened the seventh with his seventh homer of the season.

Roy singled home an eighth-inning run off Jamie Gratello but Picard answered with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth.

Freshman righty Martin hurled six innings of four-hit, two-run ball, striking out five and not walking anybody for his first college win. He had walked 11 in his 10 previous innings prior to Tuesday’s start.

“I’m definitely happy with it,” said the Dover, N.H., native. “I threw strikes and the defense helped me out. I found my release point. I kept my weight back. My slider was my best pitch and of the 28 of them I threw, 22 were for strikes. Hopefully, I showed the team I could do it and they can trust in me.” He threw 85 pitches in all, 55 for strikes.

Biddeford redshirt freshman righty Jamie Gratello finished up with three innings of one-hit, one-run ball. He fanned two and didn’t walk anybody.

“The thing I liked best about this game is Troy and Jamie both threw well, they threw strikes and they can feel good about themselves,” said Maine coach Paul Kostacopoulos.

Picard went three-for-three with two RBIs for his team-leading 17th multiple-hit and 15th multiple-RBI game. Ouellette had two hits and two RBIs including his homer.

Roy drove in two runs for Colby.

BLACK BEARS 9, WHITE MULES 3

Colby (7-15-1) Maine (27-11)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Gibson, cf 4 1 1 0 Livulpi, cf 4 2 0

Brunelle, ss 4 1 1 0 Izaryk, 3b 3 1 0

Roy, c 4 0 1 2 Picard, dh 3 0 2

a-Lynch 0 0 0 0 Drapeau, c 4 1 2

Saylor, c 0 0 0 0 Ouellette, 2b 5 2 2

Ames, 1b 2 1 0 0 Ferriggi, 2b 0 0 0

Johnson, 1b 1 0 0 0 Creek, 1b 4 0 2

Royce, dh 3 0 1 0 Carlton, 1b 0 0 0

Silverstro, dh 1 0 0 0 Quintal, lf 2 0

Hales, rf 3 0 0 1 Houser, lf 1 0 0

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

Libbert, 3b 3 0 0 0 Williams, rf 1 0 0

Miller 2 0 0 0 Saunders, lf 1 0 0

Vacca, lf 1 0 0 0 Gambale, ss 2 2 0

Totals 32 3 5 3 Totals 32 9 11 9

a-ran for Roy in 8th

Colby 010 001 010 ? 3

Maine 002 050 11x ? 9

E?Brunelle; Carlton; LOB?Colby 4, Maine 8; 2B?Royce; Livulpi; HR?Ouellette (7), Williams (3); S?Livulpi; SF?Hales; Picard, Drapeau; SB?Gibson, Brunelle, Cushman; Gambale

Colby IP H R ER BB SO

Presbrey (L,0-2) 5 8 7 6 3 1

Jenkins 1 0 0 0 2 2

Geiger 2 3 2 2 1 0

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Martin (W,1-1) 6 4 2 2 0 5

Grattelo 3 1 1 0 0 2

HBP?Ames by Martin; WP?Presbrey; T?2:17; ATT?203