The University of Maine baseball team has built its recent success around outstanding pitching.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos and his staff hope to continue that trend with the signing of four pitchers to National Letters of Intent.

Kostacopoulos announced Tuesday that righthanders Mike Powers of Portland, Pat Moran of Winterport and John Dacyczyn of South Deerfield, Mass., along with lefthander Mitchell Clegg of Arlington, Mass., have committed to play at UMaine beginning with the 2006 season.

“We thought the best players available to the University of Maine, the guys we ended up with, happened to be pitchers,” said Kostacopoulos, who pointed out the Bears have considerable depth with their position players.

The 6-foot-2 Powers has been a mainstay for Deering High School in Portland, which has won back-to-back Class A state championships. Last summer, he was the winning pitcher in the championship game of the American Legion World Series in Oregon.

“He’s a nice commitment for us in the sense he’s been in a lot of big games,” Kostacopoulos said. “We know he’s going to come in with a lot of knowledge and experience.”

Powers’ father, Mark, pitched for the Black Bears .

Moran is a 6-4 righty who could impact the UMaine program immediately. He sports a fastball in the mid-80s (mph) and has a good curveball.

“It is important for our program to keep the talent that is in our backyard,” Kostacopoulos said. “Pat is an outstanding student-athlete that will help this program for the next four years.”

Clegg will be one of only two lefties on the team. The 6-3 standout at Arlington Catholic High School also has a good fastball and a nifty curve.

“We finally got a lefthanded pitcher,” Kostacopoulos said. “The guy we wanted was Mitch and I feel we were fortunate to land him,” Kostacopoulous said.

Dacyczyn will give the Bears more mound presence. The 6-5 righty out of Frontier Regional High is a two-time All-Western Massachusetts selection.

He features a fastball that reaches 87-89 mph.

“We feel that we have not seen John’s best stuff yet and look forward to getting the chance to work with him,” Kostacopoulos said. “He has the ability to help us right now and will only get better.”

Kostacopoulos believes this quartet will help continue the Bears’ recent pitching success.

“We’ve gotten some good pitchers here in the last five or six years and I think these guys, in some respects, fall into some of the same modes as those other guys.”

All signings are contingent upon admission to the university and compliance with NCAA rules.

UMaine seniors set new standard

The senior members of the 2004 UMaine football team, although not headed for the Division I-AA playoffs this season, will still have a considerable achievement upon which to hang their hats.

By virtue of Saturdays’ 42-28 Atlantic 10 victory at Rhode Island, this year’s seniors became the winningest class in the history of the program.

Going into Saturday’s season finale in Orono against archrival New Hampshire, the group has compiled a 32-16 overall record (.667), earning a share of two conference titles while posting NCAA national quarterfinal wins in 2001 and 2002.

This senior group surpassed the 31 victories registered by UMaine’s 1989 seniors, who went 31-15 and appeared in two postseason contests.

“If you know the league we play in and the teams we play and the people we go up against, when you say that you’ve averaged eight wins over a four-year period in the A-10, that’s pretty impressive,” said UMaine coach Jack Cosgrove.

‘Flash’ Gordon strikes again

Sophomore Arel Gordon continued to build on his reputation as one of the Atlantic 10’s most dangerous kick returners after another superb effort last Saturday at Rhode Island.

Gordon, a 5-foot-9, 175-pound speedster from Rochester, N.Y., returned a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Bears’ victory. He totaled 136 yards on three returns on his way to Atlantic 10 Special Teams Player of the Week honors for the third time this season.

Gordon has established a UMaine single-season record with 743 return yards and leads the conference with a 27.5 yard average.

This season, he has returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and recovered a blocked punt for a score. Last year, he ran back a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns.

“I think we’ve got the best KOR team in the Atlantic 10 because everybody on the field believes in each other, everybody does their jobs,” Gordon said. “It’s all about faith in there.”

Mendell earns NFHCA honors

University of Maine senior Liz Mendell of Palmyra was named to the 2004 STX/National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division I All-Northeast Region first team.

Black Bears Meagan Connolly, Rachael Hilgar and Jamie Morin of Winslow were named to the second team.

Mendell, who served as a tri-captain and started all 19 games as a back, scored three goals and three assists to go with a team-high four defensive saves. She led a defense that allowed just 1.31 goals per game and recorded four shutouts. Mendell was also named to the America East first team this fall.

Morin, a sophomore goalie, ranked ninth in the nation in save percentage (.814) and 15th in goals-against average (1.32). She was 12-7 and had four shutouts, including a 2-0 blanking of Harvard, which was ranked 16th in the nation at the time. Morin was named second-team all-conference.

Connolly was fourth on the team in scoring with five goals and five assists and had a seven-game scoring streak at one point in the season. Hilgar, also an America East first-teamer and all-conference tourney team member, led the Bears in scoring (nine goals, seven assists) for the second straight year.