Bears’ batting picks up Quintal, Ferriggi powering Maine

It wasn’t that long ago University of Maine baseball coach was expressing serious concern about his team’s lack of offense.

Coming off a productive weekend at Binghamton, where UMaine took two of three games from the first-place Bearcats, it appears as though the Black Bears are making much better contact.

UMaine (20-16) has moved into a third-place tie with Northeastern in the America East standings at 5-4. The squad averaged seven runs and 13.3 hits in the series while boosting its team batting average to .289.

“Our hitting has gotten much better,” Kostacopoulos said, “and you really do feel that. You think you can come back against teams and that’s a good psychological lift for us.”

Leading the way for the Bears at Binghamton was left fielder Ryan Quintal. The sophomore posted eight hits in 13 at-bats and knocked in four runs on his way to America East Player of the Week honors.

Seven of the Bears’ nine regulars collected at least four hits in the series, including Mike Ferriggi (6-for-14, 1 RBI), Joe Hough (5-for-14, 4 RBI), Greg Creek (5-for-17, 5 runs scored) and Aaron Izaryk (4-for-15, 5 RBIs).

“If you look at our lineup now, converse to two weeks ago, we really think we go 1 through 7 with good guys now,” Kostacopoulos said. “It’s starting to come together.”

With a month remaining in the regular season, UMaine appears to putting all three phases of the game together.

The three starting pitchers averaged seven-plus innings per start, giving up only eight earned runs and 23 hits in 21 1/3 innings on their way to a 3.38 earned run average.

The bullpen was tested and provided solid support, with only one minor setback. Leading the way was sophomore righthander Scott Robinson, who appeared in all three contests at Binghamton.

He pitched a total of two innings and did not allow a hit, run or walk while striking out one. Robinson also earned a save in Saturday’s opener.

“In Saturday’s games, Scott had two appearances and he threw like 10 pitches,” Kostacopoulos said. “[Sunday], he got all three outs in the ninth. He’s throwing strikes, not walking anybody, and he’s doing a great job.”

Ryan Harris pitched 3 1/3 innings over two games and gave up only two hits and an unearned run without walking a batter. Steve Richard also worked two hitless innings in Saturday’s second game.

Kostacopoulos is looking for even more effective pitching, especially in one area.

“The big stat was we walked too many guys [in the loss],” he said. “We walked 10 guys in Game 2.”

The Bears return to action with nonleague games against Colby College of Waterville and Holy Cross on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, before heading to Vermont for a three-game conference series Saturday and Sunday.

Husson wins NAC golf crown

Husson College of Bangor, continuing its tradition of golf excellence, won the North Atlantic Conference men’s championship last weekend at Chicopee (Mass.) Country Club.

Coach Bruce MacGregor’s Braves came away with a healthy 53-stroke victory over runner-up Elms College. Leading the way for Husson was sophomore Ross McGee of Fairfield, who earned individual medalist honors with a two-day total of 150, 8 over par.

Joe Finemore shot a 152 and Lance Libby carded a 153 for the Braves, while teammates Devon Raymond (157) and Robby Picard (161) rounded out the team’s effort.

Jeff Friel of Thomas College in Waterville joined Sean Hammond of Elms on the All-NAC first team, while Greg Skafidis of Maine Maritime Academy in Castine and Jim Rand of the University of Maine-Farmington were second-team honorees along with Raymond, Picard and Elms’ Wes Scott.

UMaine track athletes solid

The UMaine outdoor track team sent several athletes to the Penn Relays held last week.

The women’s 4×400-meter relay team of Katie Souviney, Silvia Scaldaferri, Amanda Virgets and Hana Pelletier established a school record with a time of 3 minutes, 53.02 seconds. Claire Poliquin finished fifth in the high jump in the Eastern College division, clearing 1.67 meters.

Stephanie McCusker established a personal best of 38 feet, 1.25 inches in the triple jump to finish ninth in the college division. Also, the men’s 4×800 relay team of Donald Drake, Liam Gallagher, Scott Connor and Sean Steinhagen placed 10th.