UM salvages Sunday win over Danes Albany sweeps Saturday

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ORONO – The intensity was supposed to be up for the University of Maine softball team as it welcomed America East-leading Albany to Kessock Field this weekend.

That wasn’t evident Saturday, as the Black Bears dropped a doubleheader in which they managed just six hits and one run. In fact, the most intensity Maine showed Saturday came after an argument at third base.

But after struggling Saturday, the University of Maine rebounded Sunday with a 9-5 win over the Great Danes behind two-run homers by Erin Provost and Brittany Cheney and solo blasts by Lauren Dulkis and Molly McKinney.

Albany got two fine pitching performances Saturday. Amanda Morin one-hit the Bears in Saturday’s 7-0 opener and Casey Halloran scattered five hits to pick up her 13th straight win, a 3-1 victory. The doubleheader was the only America East softball action Saturday due to rain on the East Coast.

The Black Bears were looking for more than one of three this weekend, but interim head coach Michelle Puls liked the way Maine rebounded against the Danes, who are now 25-10 overall with a conference-best 11-2 record.

“We came back and battled and it was nice to see the kids stay in,” Puls said. “Especially against Albany. They haven’t given up 12 hits in conference all year.”

Maine goes to 13-20 overall and maintains second place in America East with a 7-4 record.

In Sunday’s game, the Black Bears showed some fight, pounding out the four wind-aided homers, equaling their best offensive effort of the season with 12 hits, and scoring the most runs they’ve had in a game all season. Maine entered the game with only one home run this year.

The Bears also ended Halloran’s win streak. Having faced her once already this weekend was a help for players like Dulkis, who doubled on the first pitch of the game and hit a two-out homer in the second.

“It helped that we already saw her and we hit better off her than we did the first pitcher yesterday,” Dulkis said. “… We jumped on her quick and I think that’s what helped us.”

Candace Jaegge got the start, but Jenna Merchant earned the win. Jaegge pitched four shutout innings but faltered in the fifth, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits before Merchant came in to get the final out.

Maine’s early 3-0 lead vanished after that inning, but the Bears got an RBI double from Kristie Hawkins and Provost’s two-run shot for a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth.

“[The pitch] was up and in, and I was kind of expecting it because I had been popping them up all day,” said Provost, whose homer was the first of her softball career. “Finally I just expected it and I got it.”

Albany fought back with Amber Maisonet’s two-run double, but Maine answered in the bottom of the inning as Cheney hit a two-run homer and McKinney followed one out later with a solo shot.

The Bears got at least one hit from each spot in the lineup except designated hitter Amy Kuhl, who walked twice and had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

“Everyone hit everywhere today,” Provost said. “It wasn’t just the top of the order.”

In Saturday’s first game, Morin allowed just five baserunners all game. She gave up a leadoff single to Maine’s Jess Brady in the first inning, walked two and had two reach on errors.

“She has mainly a good drop and we’re happy to see her pitch well,” Albany coach Chris Cannata said. “She’s been off her game a little, but she pitches well when she needs to.”

Meanwhile, the Danes pounded out eight hits, including a solo homer from Ashley Rios, although the Bears managed to keep the Danes from scoring until the fifth, when Maegan Larsen’s sacrifice fly plated pinch runner Danielle Buyea.

The inning was far costlier than a one-run deficit, however. Maine catcher Lindsay Tibbetts left the game after tagging out a runner at the plate on a throw from third baseman Dulkis.

Tibbetts said she may have suffered a high ankle sprain in her left foot after her leg buckled under her while blocking the plate. She didn’t play the rest of the weekend.

Albany added two runs in the sixth, including Rios’ home run and Erika Enocksen’s RBI groundout that scored pinch runner Lisa Meck from third. In the seventh, Maisonet hit a two-run triple, followed by Kelly Ogden’s RBI triple.

Sarah Bennis took the loss, walking three and striking out seven.

In Saturday’s second game, Merchant pitched well enough to win, especially with a 1-0 Maine lead after Cheney scored on McKinney’s flare to left field in the first inning. Merchant retired 12 straight before Albany took advantage of her one mistake to that point.

Ogden smacked a 1-2 screwball over the fence in left-center to tie the game. It was her team-best eighth homer of the season.

“It didn’t break very well,” Merchant said Saturday. “It was on the corner, but she’s a great hitter, and you don’t throw great hitters that pitch. I just didn’t hit my spot very well.”

Cheney, an all-conference shortstop last year, had a costly error in the fifth. After back-to-back one-out singles and then a Merchant strikeout, Albany’s Leslie Busch hit an infield single to Cheney. A run scored on the single and Cheney overthrew first baseman Hawkins, allowing another run to score and Busch to scamper over to second.

Busch stole third during the next at-bat and when she and Cheney got up from the play, the two exchanged words. After a moment to cool down, Cheney apologized and after the game both sides said it was no big deal.

“We knew we had to take one this weekend and didn’t let yesterday get to us,” Cheney said Sunday.

BLACK BEARS 9, GREAT DANES 5

(Sunday’s Game)

Albany (25-10) Maine (13-20)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Maisonet, lf 4 0 3 2 Dulkis, 3b 4 2 1

Busch, cf 4 0 0 0 Brady, cf 2 1 0

Ogden, 3b 4 0 1 1 Cheney, ss 3 2 2

Rios, 3b 4 0 0 0 Kuhl, dh 0 0 1

Dunning, 2b 4 0 1 0 Vilardo, pr 0 0 0

Enocksen, dh 4 0 2 0 Smith, ph 1 0 0

Buyea, pr 0 1 0 0 Soule, c 0 0 0

Gannon, rf 2 0 1 0 McKinney, lf 3 1 1

Burnham, rf 0 1 0 0 Joseph, pr 0 1 0

Meacham, c 2 1 0 0 Jaegge, p 1 0 1

Meck, pr 0 0 0 0 Merchant, p 2 0 0

Larsen, ss 2 2 2 1 Hawkins, 1b 4 1 1

Provost, 2b 4 1 1 2

Grimm, rf 3 0 1 0

Totals 30 5 10 4 Totals 27 9 12 9

Albany 000 032 0 – 5

Maine 210 033 x – 9

E-Maisonet; Grimm; LOB-Albany 7, Maine 8; 2B-Maisonet, Dunning, Enocksen; Dulkis, Brady, Hawkins; HR-Dulkis (1), Cheney (2), McKinney (1), Provost (1); S-Brady, Jaegge; SF-Kuhl; SB-Burnham

Albany IP H R ER BB SO

Halloran (L, 13-5) 4 2/3 7 6 5 5 1

Marcucci 1 1/3 5 3 3 0 2

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Jaegge 4 1/3 8 3 2 1 3

Merchant (W, 3-3) 2 2/3 2 2 2 2 0

PB-Soule; T-2:00; ATT-113

GREAT DANES 7, BLACK BEARS 0

(Saturday’s First Game)

Albany (24-9) Maine (12-19)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Larsen, ss 3 1 1 1 Brady, cf 2 0 0

Maisonet, lf 4 1 2 2 Dulkis, 3b 3 0 0

Ogden, 3b 4 1 1 1 Cheney, ss 3 0 0

Rios, 1b 3 1 1 2 Kuhl, 1b 3 0 0

Dunning, 2b 4 0 1 0 McKinney, lf 2 0 0

Meck, pr 0 1 0 0 Jaegge, dh 3 0 0

Enocksen, dh 4 0 0 1 Ramos, 2b 0 0 0

Gannon, rf 1 0 0 0 Tibbetts, c 1 0 0

Burnham, pr 1 0 1 0 Soule, c 2 0 0

Meacham, c 2 0 1 0 Grimm, rf 2 0 0

Buyea, pr 0 1 0 0 Bennis, p 2 0 0

Busch, cf 3 1 0 0

Totals 29 7 8 7 Totals 23 0 1 0

Albany 000 012 4 – 7

Maine 000 000 0 – 0

E-Rios, Meacham; Cheney, Ramos; LOB-Albany 5, Maine 4; 3B-Maisonet, Ogden, Dunning; HR-Rios (4); DP-Larsen-Dunning-Rios; SF-Larsen; SB-Burnham

Albany IP H R ER BB SO

Morin (W, 10-2) 7 1 0 0 2 7

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Bennis (L, 6-7) 7 8 7 7 3 7

WP-Bennis; PB-Soule; T-2:00; ATT-74

GREAT DANES 3, BLACK BEARS 1

(Saturday’s Second Game)

Albany (25-9) Maine (12-20)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Larsen, ss 2 0 0 0 Dulkis, 3b 4 0 0

Meck, ph 0 0 0 0 Brady, cf 4 0 0

Maisonet, lf 3 0 0 0 Cheney, ss 3 1 0

Ogden, 3b 3 1 1 1 Kuhl, dh 1 0 0

Rios, 1b 3 0 0 0 Vilardo, pr 0 0 0

Dunning, 2b 3 0 0 0 Soule, c 0 0 0

Enocksen, dh 3 0 1 0 McKinney, lf 2 0 1

Buyea, pr 0 1 0 0 Merchant, p 3 0 0

Gannon, rf 3 1 1 0 Hawkins, 1b 2 0 0

Burnham, rf 0 0 0 0 Provost, 2b 3 0 0

Meacham, c 2 0 0 0 Grimm, rf 2 0 0

Busch, cf 3 0 1 1 Jaegge, ph 1 0 0

Totals 25 3 4 2 Totals 25 1 5 1

Albany 000 120 0 – 3

Maine 100 000 0 – 1

E-Cheney; LOB-Albany 3, Maine 7; HR-Ogden (8); S-Hawkins; SB-Meck, Busch

Albany IP H R ER BB SO

Halloran (W, 13-4) 7 5 1 1 3 3

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Merchant (L, 2-3) 7 4 3 2 2 3

T-1:40; ATT-76