BROOKLINE, Mass. – When the University of Maine and Northeastern renew their baseball rivalry, anything can happen.

Friday afternoon, the Black Bears and the Huskies beat each other’s ace while splitting an America East doubleheader at Friedman Diamond.

Greg Norton and Scott Robinson combined to scatter eight hits as UMaine won the opener 3-2, before Jordan Thomson fired a six-hitter as Northeastern took the nightcap 7-1.

The teams play a single nine-inning game today at noon.

“We’ve got to battle to get these wins in conference,” said UMaine senior captain Simon Williams of Portland, who doubled, homered, and scored twice in the first game.

“We really don’t care for each other that much,” he said with a smile. “That’s the way the game should be. It really brings out the best in people.”

In the opener, Norton (3-4) spread out six hits over six innings. He struck out five and hit two batters.

“That’s most definitely the best I’ve felt all year so far,” said Norton, who spotted his fastball well and mixed in an occasional changeup. “I was in a good groove and it was a great day to play – the first conference game against Northeastern. What more could you want?”

UMaine (14-13) led 3-2 when Robinson entered the game in the seventh. He gave up consecutive one-out singles to Arman Sidhu and Chris Emanuele, but got Paul Koslowski to pop up, ending the threat.

Robinson retired the last six men to preserve his second save.

“Norton did his job, got us through six with the lead, then Scott was outstanding,” said UMaine coach Paul Kostacopoulos. “Protecting a one-run lead for three innings is a very good job.”

UMaine reached NU ace Justin Hedrick (3-2) early. Williams opened the game with a line double to left-center and freshman Matt McGraw followed with a slicing RBI triple down the line in right. One out later, Ryan Quintal made it 2-0 with a run-producing groundout.

The Bears added the eventual winning run in the third when Williams smashed a one-out solo homer to left. Hedrick settled down after that and afforded the Bears only one hit over the next 3 2/3 innings.

Northeastern (11-9) finally reached Norton for two runs in the fifth on singles by Tim Bush, Miguel Paquette, Brian Nutting, and Brad Czarnowski to make it 3-2.

“We’re going to be playing a lot of those games,” Williams said. “We’ve got good pitching and our offense is kind of back and forth, so if we can string some hits together, win those 3-2, 4-2 ballgames, it’s pretty important.”

In the second game, the Huskies posted nine hits against Bears standout Mike MacDonald (2-1), who didn’t have good command. After spotting UMaine a 1-0 lead, the hosts scored twice in the first inning, then added three in the third and two in the fifth.

“He didn’t have real good concentration, you could tell, because he was missing by a lot,” Kostacopoulos said.

UMaine’s run came when Williams was hit by a pitch, stole second, and took third on an errant throw, then scored on Greg Creek’s sharp single to center. The Bears managed only five other singles against Thompson (3-2), who struck out seven and walked nobody.

“Those two guys for them are both seniors, both have pitched a lot,” said Kostacopoulos, who was disappointed his Bears struck out 19 times, eight of them looking. “Their team ERA is [2.85].”

NU picked up all the runs it needed in the first. Czarnowski drew a one-out walk and Emanuele beat out an infield single. Jeff Heriot walked and Paquette responded with a two-run single to left.

Emanuele singled three times to pace the Huskies, and Heriot singled twice.

BLACK BEARS 3, HUSKIES 2

(First Game)

Maine (14-12) Northeastern (10-9)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Williams, cf 3 2 2 1 Czarnowski, lf 4 0 1

McGraw, 3b 4 1 2 1 Sidhu, ss 4 0 0

Reichley, 3b 0 0 0 0 Emanuele, rf 4 0 0

Creek, 1b 4 0 0 0 Koslowski, 1b 4 0 0

Quintal, lf 2 0 0 1 Keriot, cf 4 0 0

Barrett, dh 4 0 0 0 Bush, 3b 3 1 0

Hough, rf 3 0 0 0 Paquette, dh 4 1 0

Izaryk, c 4 0 0 0 Morizio, c 3 0 0

Ferriggi, 2b 3 0 1 0 a-Steinberg 1 0 0

Harvey, ss 4 0 0 0 Nutting, 2b 4 0 1

Totals 31 3 5 3 Totals 35 2 8 2

a-struck out for Morizio in 9th

Maine 201 000 000 ? 3

Northeastern 000 020 000 ? 2

E?Nutting (2); LOB?Maine 6; Northeastern 8; 2B?Williams, Ferriggi; 3B?McGraw; HR?Williams (1); DP?Sidhu-Nutting-Koslowski

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Norton 6 6 2 2 0 5

Robinson 3 2 0 0 0 2

Northeastern IP H R ER BB SO

Hedrick 7 5 3 3 4 8

Madison 2 0 0 0 1 3

HBP?by Norton (Czarnowski), by Norton (Bush); PB?Morizio; T?2:30; ATT?102

HUSKIES 7, BLACK BEARS 1

(Second Game)

Maine (14-13) Northeastern (11-9)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Williams, cf 2 1 1 0 Steinberg, dh 4 0 0

McGraw, 3b-c 3 0 0 0 Czarnowski, lf 2 2 1

Creek, 1b 3 0 1 1 Emanuele, rf 4 3 0

Barrett, dh 3 0 1 0 Heriot, cf 2 2 0

Hough, rf 3 0 0 0 Paquette, 1b 2 0 2

Izaryk, c-2b 3 0 1 0 Keslowski, 1b 0 0 0

Ferriggi, 2b-ss 2 0 0 0 Sidhu, ss 2 2

a-Kabatznick 1 0 0 0 Bush, 3b 3 0 1

Saunders, lf 2 0 1 0 Morizio, c 3 0 0

Reichley, 3b 1 0 0 0 Murray, 2b 3 0 0

Harvey, ss 2 0 1 0

Houser, lf 1 0 0 0

Totals 16 1 6 1 Totals 25 7 8 6

a-struck out for Ferriggi in 7th

Maine 100 000 0 ? 1

Northeastern 203 020 x ? 7

E?McGraw (3), Harvey (15), Creek (3); Czarnowski (1), Morizio (6); LOB?Maine 5, Northeastern 5; 2B?Sidhu; HR?Czarnowski (3); DP?Harvey-Ferriggi-Creek; Sidhu-Murray=Paquette, Bush-Murray-Paquette; S?Paquette; SB?Williams (11); Czarnowski (8)

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

MacDonald 4 1/3 8 7 5 3 4

Bishop 1 2/3 0 0 0 1 0

Northeastern IP H R ER BB SO

Thomson 7 6 1 0 1 7

T? 1:35; ATT? 140