BALTIMORE, Md. – The University of Maine tuned up for the America East Baseball Tournament it will host beginning Thursday by winning its sixth straight Saturday, 10-7, over the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

Freshman designated hitter Matt McGraw’s solo homer in the top of the seventh broke a 7-7 tie and he added a run-scoring single in the eighth as Maine clinched the second seed for the tourney.

The Black Bears, 32-19 overall and 14-7 in America East, will face third seed Albany (36-12, 14-7) in Thursday’s 7 p.m. game at Mahaney Diamond.

Northeastern claimed its first ever America East regular season championship with an 8-1 win over Albany on Saturday.

Northeastern (28-18, 14-6) will open the tourney at 3:30 p.m. against No. 4 Stony Brook (26-25, 11-10) in a rematch of last year’s championship game participants. Northeastern won the title game 11-0.

Maine has averaged 7.7 runs per game during its six-game winning streak.

“Scoring runs and winning games are all positives. You couldn’t ask for much more heading into the tournament,” said Bear eighth-year coach Paul Kostacopoulos. “The pitching has been good all year. Our earned run average is around 3.8 [3.73]. We’re going into the tournament the way we want to be.”

He said the four tournament teams are “very, very equal and each has a number one pitcher who can beat anyone.”

The Bears featured a 17-hit attack in Saturday’s triumph with all nine starters collecting at least one hit and seven of them producing at least two hits.

McGraw led off the seventh with his second homer of the season and his two-out single in the eighth delivered Joe Hough to make it 9-7 before Mike Ferriggi singled home Ryan Quintal.

Maine had rallied from a 4-2 deficit to take a 7-4 lead with single runs in the third and sixth innings sandwiching a three-run fourth.

Singles by Joel Barrett, Greg Creek and Quintal produced the third-inning run; Pete Saunders’ second homer of the season, a two-run shot, and Creek’s RBI double accounted for the fourth-inning runs and Hough’s run-scoring infield single in the sixth made it 7-4.

Kyle Wildasin’s two-run double in the bottom of the sixth capped a three-run rally that tied it.

Aaron Izaryk paced Maine’s attack with two doubles and a single. He scored twice.

Creek and Ferriggi had a double and a single apiece; McGraw had his homer and single and Hough, Quintal and Jason Harvey had two singles each.

Creek, McGraw and Saunders had two RBIs each while Hough, Quintal and Ferriggi had one apiece.

UM-Baltimore County, which concluded a 14-38 season (6-15 AE), didn’t have any repeat hitters but Wildasin had his two-run double and Zach Clark, Mike Orlando and Jack Saffron each had a single and an RBI.

Jamie Grattelo picked up the win in relief. Scott Robinson pitched a scoreless ninth to notch his sixth save after Ryan Harris had thrown two shutout innings.

On Friday, Maine senior righty Mike MacDonald set the school career strikeout record.

His five strikeouts in a 6-2 win over UMBC gave the Camden native 275, which is one more than Mike D’Andrea registered between 1989-92.

“The fact Mike will be able to rub elbows in the record books with great names like Billy Swift and Mike D’Andrea tells you how good he has been in his four years here,” said Kostacopoulos.

BLACK BEARS 10, RETRIEVERS 7

Maine (32-19) UMBC (14-38)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Saunders, cf 5 2 1 2 Carpenter, ss 4 2 0

Izaryk, c 5 2 3 0 Clark, 1b 4 1 1

Barrett, 1b 4 2 1 0 Gossard, c 2 2 1

Creek, 3b 4 0 2 2 Wildasin, cf-p 4 0 2

Hough, rf 5 1 2 1 Orlando, 3b 4 0 1

Quintal, lf 6 1 2 1 Long, rf-lf 4 0 0

McGraw, dh 5 1 2 2 Saffron, 2b 4 0 1

Ferriggi, 2b 5 1 2 1 Cerullo, lf-cf 5 1 0

Harvey, ss 4 0 2 0 Becraft, dh 3 1 0

Zaworski, rf 0 0 0 0

Totals 43 10 17 9 Totals 34 7 6 6

Maine 201 301 120 ? 10

UMBC 220 003 000 ? 7

E?Creek, Quintal, Harvey, Richard; Saffron; LOB?Maine 14, UMBC 12; 2B?Izaryk 2, Creek, Ferriggi; Wildasin; HR?Saunders (2), McGraw (2); DP?Maine 1, UMBC 1; S?Gossard; SB?Creek, Hough

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Richard 5 2 4 2 5 5

Grattelo (W, 2-1) 1 2 3 0 1 2

Harris 2 1 0 0 2 2

Robinson (S, 6) 1 1 0 0 2 0

UMBC IP H R ER BB SO

Evans 2 1/3 6 3 3 2 2

Buchholz 1 2 2 2 0 0

Phipps 2 2/3 3 2 2 3 5

Johnson (L, 0-3) 1 2/3 4 3 3 1 2

Wildasin 1 1/3 2 0 0 2 1

HBP?Orlando by Richard; WP? Harris 3, Grattelo; Evans; PB?Gossard; T?3:16; ATT?89