Bears bounce back after sluggish start UMaine finishes southern swing at 7-7

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos knew his University of Maine baseball team might experience a few growing pains during its annual southern trip.

The revamped Black Bears took a while to establish themselves, but bounced back during the second week of the trip and returned to Orono with a solid 7-7 record.

UMaine lost a tremendous amount of offensive production and experience after last season. That might help account for the Bears’ 2-6 start.

What has Kostacopoulos optimistic is the way UMaine responded to its early struggles.

“We were down and out, lost two bad games against Mount St. Mary’s and Wagner,” Kostacopoulos explained. “Usually, when you start spiraling on a trip like that, you keep going.”

Instead, the Bears responded from dropping five straight by winning five of their last six.

“The players turned the trip totally around,” Kostacopoulos said. “We could have come home 4-10. “I was thoroughly impressed with the way the players rallied.”

Pitching, which was expected to be a strength for UMaine, performed well overall. Starters Mike MacDonald (1-0, 1.12 earned run average), Greg Norton (1-2, 2.91), Steve Richard (0-1, 3.52) and Ryan Harris (2-1, 4.96) were solid.

MacDonald of Camden, Norton of South Portland and Harris were regulars in the Bears’ rotation last season, while Richard is a promising freshman. All are righthanders.

Scott Robinson (2-0, 1 save, 1.42) and Biddeford’s Jamie Grattelo (1-2, 3.86), both sophomores, teamed with freshman Ryan Brown of Old Town (team-low 0.90 ERA) and Troy Martin (4.82 ERA) to give UMaine good efforts out of the bullpen.

“Our starting pitching was pretty good, and I expected that, but our relievers were just outstanding,” said Kostacopoulous, who needed to establish some relief roles in part because of some inexperience in the bullpen and also because the Bears will play numerous nine-inning conference games this spring.

“I’m not as apprehensive about the nine-inning game now because we have people to go to,” Kostacopoulos said.

UMaine opened the season with some offensive question marks and showed it has some work to do with the bats. The Bears hit .282 as a team, averaging 4.8 runs per contest, but lack the power (four home runs) of recent ballclubs.

“We had trouble scoring runs, getting the big hit, having that big RBI guy,” Kostacopoulos said.

Freshman catcher-third baseman Matt McGraw led the squad with a .413 average and three RBIs. Junior Greg Creek of Chelsea, the first baseman, batted .379 with a team-high 22 hits, one homer and 11 RBIs.

Second baseman Mike Ferriggi (.320, 4 RBIs) and outfielders Joe Hough (.302, 2 HR, 9 RBIs) and Ryan Quintal (.300, 5 RBIs) also had a good trip. A few of the veterans, including Mark Reichley, Aaron Izaryk and Simon Williams, struggled a bit, but Kostacopoulos is confident they’ll come back strong.

The reconfigured UMaine defense was up and down, committing 21 errors (1.5 per game). However, starters Jason Harvey of Bucksport (SS), Ferriggi (2B), Mark Reichley (3B) and McGraw (C, 3B) all were new to their positions.

Kostacopoulos knows his team has a lot of work to do and plenty of time to keep improving. Most importantly, he likes the squad’s character.

“We’ve got good, hardworking kids who keep plugging,” he said. “We don’t have the talent that we’ve had, but I think you can do a lot of things with a team that wants to work.”

UMaine opens the northern part of its schedule with a three-game weekend series at Rhode Island starting Saturday.