There are many phases to the season for the University of Maine baseball team.

It begins with a bang – two weeks of games down in Florida. The problem is, the Black Bears have to come back to the Northeast, where winter has a way of lingering.

Last weekend, UMaine played two of three scheduled games at Monmouth University in New Jersey. The third was rained out in the fifth inning.

The Bears then returned to Orono, where snow covers Mahaney Diamond and the field house is the place they prepare for next weekend’s games against Harvard and New York Tech and beyond.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos believes his team is smack-dab in the middle of the most difficult time of the year.

“The hardest three weeks of our coaching calendar is these three weeks,” Kostacopoulos said. “Then we start getting outside and if worse comes to worst we’re on the [artificial] turf. You’ve just got to stay positive.”

While it can be difficult maintaining proficiency and consistency while waiting for the field to thaw out and dry, the Bears, as usual, are making due.

“We need to get in the rhythm of playing and that doesn’t happen for the first couple weeks [up north],” Kostacopoulos said.

Among UMaine’s leaders of late is sophomore Steve Richard. The righthander from Billerica, Mass., had an outstanding outing in last Saturday’s second game.

After the Bears dropped a one-run decision in the first game of the doubleheader, Richard responded with a three-hit shutout against the Hawks.

“It was a tough loss, 8-7, and he comes right back and for five innings they had no prayer of doing anything against him,” Kostacopoulos said.

Richard improved to 2-0 on the season and earned America East Pitcher of the Week honors.

“He was totally in control the whole game,” Kostacopoulos said. “He got squeezed unbelievably. The umpire would not give him a strike and he still struck out nine and walked two. That’s how on he was.”

Junior Greg Norton of South Portland was shaky in his Saturday start, while junior Troy Martin also struggled a bit. And while his effort did not count, senior Greg Creek pitched well in Sunday’s canceled game with four shutout innings.

Offensively, the Bears have been a bit sporadic. Kostacopoulos believes it is a matter of time before UMaine heats up with the bats.

Leadoff man Joe Hough, who had offseason surgery, is off to a slow start (.232) and No. 3 batter Creek has been sidelined by a wrist injury suffered when he was hit by a pitch in his second at-bat of the season down in Florida.

Merrimack falls in semifinal

The Merrimack (Mass.) College women’s basketball team, which includes former Maine high school standouts Ashley Brownlee of Portland and Kara Borelli of Westbrook, fell to Seattle Pacific (Wash.), 73-64 in the NCAA Division II semfinal played at Hot Springs, Ark., on Thursday night.

Seattle Pacific (30-2) will face the winner of Thursday’s late game between Central Arkansas (28-6) and Washburn (32-2) in the national championship game at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Merrimack, regular-season and tournament champion of the Northeast 10 Conference, was making its second straight trip to the Division II semifinals. The Warriors finish their season with a 29-6 record.