BURLINGTON, Vt. – All season, the University of Maine baseball team has relied heavily on ace Steve Richard to set the tone for its weekend series.

Thursday night, with the sophomore righthander unable to find a good groove in cold, rainy, windy conditions at Centennial Field, the Black Bears alleviated the pressure.

UMaine scored in each of the first five innings and pounded out 19 hits on its way to a 14-2 victory over Vermont in the first round of the America East tournament.

Coach Paul Kostacopoulos’ No. 2 Black Bears (32-16) play No. 1 Northeastern (26-21) in today’s 3:30 p.m. winners’ bracket game. The winner moves into Saturday’s championship round, while the loser faces a 7 p.m. elimination contest.

“When you win the first game, you have a chance of playing three games,” said senior catcher Aaron Izaryk, who singled twice and walked four times. “When you lose the first game, you have a chance of playing five games. We just wanted to get off on a winning start and let it roll through the tournament.”

In Thursday’s opener, Northeastern scored three times in the seventh inning while earning a 7-3 victory over Binghamton. Third seed Vermont (26-18) and No. 4 Binghamton (23-25-1) meet today at noon.

Joe Hough stroked four singles, knocked in two runs and scored three times to pace the Bears’ potent attack. Joel Barrett of Brewer tripled and singled with three RBIs and Matt McGraw rapped three singles (2 RBIs). Ryan Quintal doubled twice (RBI) while Mike Ferriggi and Curt Smith each posted a double and a single.

Curt Smith (double, single, RBI) and Izaryk (two singles, three walks) also joined the hit parade as each of the Bears starters had at least one hit.

“We knew we were going to be facing a first-team all-conference pitcher in [Chris] Blazek,” Hough said. “One through nine our guys just swung it well today. Right now we’re feeling good about ourselves and we want to be able to carry that into [Friday].”

UMaine still stranded 13 baserunners.

Richard, who uncharacteristically issued five walks and threw four wild pitches, admitted he didn’t have a great night. He was ejected with one out in the fifth after questioning the umpire about a previous two-strike pitch that was called a ball.

“It was really cold. It was really hard to get warmed up,” Richard said. “It was good to have some runs so I could just throw.”

The Bears backed Richard with the pinging bats and solid defense.

“He’s carried us for two months as far as going out there and taking the tough start,” Kostacopoulos said. “It was nice to see that maybe he could be a little off – they still only scored two runs – and we could pick him up a little bit.”

Troy Martin (8-2) pitched 3 2/3 innings of two-hit shutout relief to earn the victory after Richard was ejected.

After Richard escaped a first-inning jam, the Bears jumped in front 2-0 with four hits in the first inning. Hough and Greg Creek stroked singles, then Barrett ripped an RBI single to center. Izaryk walked with one out and Smith followed with a run-scoring single to left.

UMaine added two in the second after two were out. Blazek walked Creek on four pitches, then Barrett crushed an RBI triple to the gap in left-center. Barrett scored on an ensuing wild pitch.

The Bears chased Blazek in the third. McGraw singled and Ferriggi laced a double to left-center. One out later, Hough plated both runs with a hard single to left as Ferriggi aggressively raced in from second.

Things unraveled for Richard (100 pitches) in the fifth when he walked four straight batters with one out, threw three wild pitches and was tossed by Don January.

“He was never quite on and he got a little frustrated there,” Kostacopoulos said. “We’ve all got some emotions. He was coming out of the game anyway.”

UMaine pushed its lead back to seven with two more runs in the fifth on Quintal’s RBI double, Izaryk’s infield hit and an error.

NU 7, Binghamton 3

America East Pitcher of the Year Adam Ottavino recorded the win for Northeastern as he went 7 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs. Second-team third baseman Tim Bush went 3-for-4 with two runs batted in to lead the Huskies.

Northeastern put two runs on the board in the bottom half of the first inning and later added two more runs in the third to take an early 4-0 lead. Ottavino was in control of the game through the first five innings, until the Bearcats finally got to him in the top of the sixth.

America East Player of the Year Mathieu Bergeron got things started for Binghamton as he went deep to lead off the inning. Catcher Pat Haughie singled in two runs later in the inning as the Bearcats pulled within one run, 4-3.

The No. 1 Huskies would break things open with a three-run seventh inning to give the game its final 7-3 tally. With two outs, Northeastern managed to plate three insurance that could not be overcome by Binghamton.

BLACK BEARS 14, CATAMOUNTS 2

Vermont (26-18) Home (32-16)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Rossi, dh 2 1 1 0 Hough, cf 6 3 2

Gallipani, ph 1 0 1 0 Creek, dh 3 0

Carey, lf 3 1 3 0 Barrett, 1b 4 1 3

Folley, lf 1 0 0 0 Quintal, lf 5 1 2

Magrass, 3b 4 0 0 0 Izaryk, c 2 2 1

Brault, rf 3 0 0 1 Smith, 3b 6 1 1

Iannoni, 1b 4 0 0 0 McGraw, rf 5 1 2

Chapman, 2b 3 0 0 0 Ostrander, rf 0 0 0

Massie, cf 3 0 2 0 Ferriggi, 2b 5 1 0

Naimoli, c 4 0 0 0 Vallee, ss 5 1 0

Hale, c 0 0 0 0

Montanez, ss 4 0 0 0

Totals 32 2 7 1 Totals 41 14 19 11

Vermont 000 020 000 – 2

Maine 222 120 05x- 14

E-Montanez; Vallee; LOB-Vermont 10, Maine 13; 2B-Carey (10); Quintall 2 (18), Smith (13), Ferriggi (11); 3B-Barrett (2) DP-Vermont 2, Maine 1; SB-Hough (21)

Vermont IP H R ER BB SO

Blazek (L,5-4) 2 1/3 9 6 6 3 2

Miles 1 2/3 1 1 1 1 0

Boyle 2 4 2 1 0 3

Thompson 1 2/3 5 5 5 1 0

Smith 1/3 0 0 0 2 0

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Richard 4 1/3 4 2 2 5 5

Martin (W,8-2) 3 2/3 2 0 0 1 5

Brown 1 1 0 0 0 1

HBP-Creek by Blazek, Barre by Miles, Chapman by Martin; WP-Blazek 2, Miles, Richard 4; BK-Miles; T-3:35; ATT-520