ORONO – Ryan Brown, Jason Harvey and Joel Barrett all are making the transition to Division I baseball this season at the University of Maine.

Thursday night, the trio of former Eastern Maine high school stars helped spearhead the Black Bears to victory.

Brown pitched five solid innings of relief, while Barrett and Harvey combined for eight hits and six RBIs as UMaine breezed to an 18-8 victory over Colby College of Waterville at Mahaney Diamond.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos’ UMaine ballclub improved to 22-16, piling up 19 hits in its eighth consecutive contest with 10 or more hits. Tom Dexter’s Colby squad slipped to 4-25 despite its 14 hits.

Brown, making his eighth appearance, kept the White Mules in check after they put up five runs and seven hits in the first three innings. The freshman righthander from Old Town shut out Colby for four innings before allowing four hits and three runs in the eighth.

“I thought the player of the game was Ryan Brown,” Kosta copoulos said. “He came in, in an adverse situation – I think it was 5-5 – and he really settled it down. He gave us a couple chances to score and in one of those innings we scored six runs.”

Brown scattered seven singles, struck out two, walked two and hit a batter while earning his first collegiate victory. He featured a nifty changeup and a good fastball before tiring a bit in the eighth.

“I haven’t been out there that long all season, so it felt good to get some innings in,” Brown said. “I was throwing my changeup for strikes and keeping it at the knees and that’s what works for me, because I’m not that much of an overpowering pitcher.”

Harvey, a sophomore from Bucksport, posted four hits, including a double. The shortstop, a transfer from Husson College in Bangor, stayed hot after going 3-for-4 Wednesday.

“Coach talked to me about being aggressive at the plate and in the nine spot, seeing a lot of fastballs, you can be aggressive,” Harvey said.

“It’s been a real tough change,” he said of Division I. “The competition level’s up; the intensity level’s up. I like the challenge and it’s great to play up here.”

Barrett, a freshman first baseman from Brewer who sat out 2003 as a redshirt, collected four singles and five RBIs. Simon Williams of Portland had three singles and three RBIs while Aaron Izaryk hit a two-run home run, singled, delivered a sacrifice fly, walked three times, scored four runs.

Greg Creek of Chelsea doubled twice with an RBI and Ryan Quintal laced a three-run homer.

“What we’ve started to buy into a little bit is, we kept the ball from the left-center gap to the right-center gap,” Kostacopoulos said. “We didn’t get pull-happy, which means we’re waiting [on pitches].”

Tom Salemy led Colby with a double, two singles and an RBI, while Vincent Domestico and Tyler Hales each singled twice. The Mules made four errors.

UMaine broke a 5-5 tie with a six-run uprising in the fourth. Williams was hit by a pitch with one out, stole second and scored on Izaryk’s single to right-center.

Creek roped a run-scoring double to center, Barrett looped an RBI single to right-center, Joe Hough beat out an infield single, and Quintal lined a low homer that barely cleared the fence in right field, giving the Bears an 11-5 lead.

BLACK BEARS 18, WHITE MULES 8

Colby (4-25) Maine (22-16)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Liberty, lf 3 1 1 1 Williams, cf 4 2 2

Domestico, ss 5 1 2 1 Saunders, cf 1 0

Salemy, 2b 5 2 3 1 Izaryk, c 2 4 4

Roy, c 4 1 2 2 Creek, 3b 3 2 2

Ames, 1b 4 0 1 1 Reichley, 3b 1 0 0

Carr, 3b 4 1 1 2 Barrett, 1b 6 2 5

Agustin, rf 3 0 0 0 Hough, rf 6 1 0

Souders, rf 2 1 1 0 Quintal, lf 6 1 3

Hales, cf 5 0 2 0 McGraw, dh 3 1 1

Cote, dh 2 0 0 0 Kabatznick, dh 1 0 0

Rosenbaum, dh 1 0 0 0 Ferriggi, 2b 4 0

King, dh 1 1 1 0 Harvey, ss 5 3 1

Totals 39 8 14 9 Totals 42 18 19 18

Colby 302 000 030 ? 8

Maine 311 623 02x ? 18

E?Domestico, Roy, Souder, Peet; Warner; LOB?Colby 9; Maine 9; 2B?Salemy, Roy; Creek 2, McGraw, Harvey; HR?Carr (2); Izaryk (4), Quintal (4); SF?Ames; Izaryk, Creek; SB?Souders (1); Williams (19)

Colby IP H R ER BB SO

Brady (L, 0-3) 3 1/3 12 11 10 0 2

Peet 2 5 5 5 3 0

Beitia 1 2/3 0 0 0 1 2

Jacobs 1 2 2 1 1 1

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Warner 3 7 5 5 0 0

Brown (W, 1-1) 5 7 3 3 2 2

Bishop 1 0 0 0 1 2

HBP?Roy (by Brown); Williams (by Brady); WP?Warner 2, Brown; T?2:42; ATT?224