The University of Maine baseball team has left the sunshine and palm trees behind. Today, the Black Bears begin the northern portion of their schedule by opening a three-game series at Monmouth University.

UMaine returned from Florida with a solid 6-6 record that told coach Paul Kostacopoulos a few important things about his ballclub.

First, the Bears appear to have narrowed down their pitching staff.

For now, the weekend starting rotation consists of junior Greg Norton of South Portland, senior Greg Creek of Chelsea, and sophomore Steve Richard.

“I look at our top three pitchers and I think we have a chance to continue or be a real solid staff,” Kostacopoulos said.

Versatile junior Troy Martin may move into a relief role along with junior Scott Robinson and newcomer Nolan Boike, who was a pleasant surprise in Florida.

The Bears have a 4.33 team earned run average with 77 strikeouts and 39 walks in 104 innings.

“We need one more guy to really step it up and we’re solid for conference situations,” Kostacopoulos said.

Offensively, UMaine was solid but unspectacular. Freshman third baseman Curt Smith set the tone at .409 while 1B Joel Barrett (.396), LF Ryan Quintal (.358), Creek (.351) and C Aaron Izaryk (.348) led the way.

The Bears averaged 6.4 runs on the trip, but left too many runners on base to win some close games.

“We’ve just got to do a little better job of not striking out and, bottom line, we’ve got to pick up some clutch hits,” Kostacopoulos said.

One area the UMaine coach wasn’t happy with was defense. The Bears committed an uncharacteristic 28 errors in 12 games.

“We were a below-average team defensively and that’s not the University of Maine,” Kostacopoulos said. “That’s my biggest concern right now.”

UMaine had to do a bit of shuffling at a couple of positions because of injuries. Shortstop Steve Gambale has sustained two injuries to his throwing hand, while OF Creek is dealing with a left wrist problem.

Starting this weekend, the Bears need to begin making further strides as they prepare for what will be a tough America East season in two weeks.