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BURLINGTON, Vt. – The University of Maine was unbeaten but in danger Saturday afternoon of losing its momentum during the America East Baseball Championship at Centennial Field.
Fourth-seeded Stony Brook blanked the No. 3 Black Bears for eight innings and extended its lead to two runs in the bottom of the eighth. Rather than crumble under the pressure, UMaine responded.
Sophomore Curt Smith singled to spark a string of five consecutive hits by underclassmen as UMaine erupted for five runs in the ninth inning on its way to a 5-3 victory and its second straight America East title.
“All these guys, they are not afraid to fail,” said first-year coach Steve Trimper. “No one wanted to quit. The guys in the dugout said, ‘no one’s making an out this inning,’ and they went up there and they just retooled, refocused themselves.”
The Bears (35-20-1) advance to the 64-team NCAA Tournament for the second straight season, the program’s first back-to-back appearances since 1990-91. The pairings for the 16 four-team regionals will be announced today at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN-TV.
“All the guys, 1 through 28, just don’t give up and it’s an amazing feeling,” said junior co-captain Joel Barrett of Brewer, who posted a double, an RBI single in the pivotal ninth, and was named to the all-tournament team.
“I was just sitting back enjoying it,” he said of the late heroics. “It was such a good feeling to know that we can do that.”
Stony Brook (25-29) had stayed alive by edging Vermont 2-1 in Saturday’s first game.
UMaine right fielder Mark Ostrander, whose RBI double to left-center plated the first run, was selected the Most Outstanding Player. The sophomore also singled Saturday and went 5-for-10 with two doubles, two RBIs, and four runs scored in the tournament.
“It was really luck that I got hot at the time that I did and was able to help the team out the way that I was,” Ostrander said.
“To go through eight and not have any runs, to say that our pitcher [Jose Mendoza] was going to give up two runs and we weren’t going to have anything to show for it, would have been an embarrassment,” he said. “We were glad we came up with some offensive support to help him out.”
Frosh Mendoza was another hero. The soft-tossing lefthander spread out nine hits over 7 2/3 innings before leaving with the bases loaded and two out in the eighth.
Relief winner Troy Martin (7-4) came on and allowed a run to score on a wild pitch before getting the final out.
“I just went out there and thought of it as just another game, didn’t put any pressure on myself,” Mendoza said. “Everybody was just telling me don’t worry about it, you’ve been in big games before, so just go out there and do your thing.”
Freshman righty A.J. Balsinde gave up two hits and a run in the ninth, but earned his third save in as many days en route to all-tourney honors. UMaine also placed freshman catcher Sean Parker and frosh pitcher Mike Powers of Portland on the squad, which was chosen regardless of position.
Other honorees were Matt Restivo, Andres Perez, and Jon Pasieka of Stony Brook, Jason Carey of Vermont, and Albany’s Steve Wyland.
In the ninth, Smith greeted Seawolves closer Nick Abel (2-2), who hadn’t allowed an earned run all season, with a single to left. Kevin McAvoy of Brewer followed, fisting a single to center.
“At first we were trying to hit it hard, swinging for the fence, and the last inning I guess everyone knew that we needed hits and they shortened the swing up and got hits,” said Smith whose mother, Claudette Mourillon, traveled from Curacao to watch her son play.
Ostrander then drilled a 2-2 fastball to left-center that scored the first run and got the Bears more fired up.
“When you’re down two runs in the top of the ninth and you haven’t scored a run all game, it’s tough,” McAvoy said. “The type of team we are, we can battle like that. Once we get a couple hits, we just seem to start a flow.”
Gary Novakowski replaced Abel, and Parker greeted him with a ground-ball single to left that made it 2-2. Danny Menendez, the last of four freshmen at the bottom of the UMaine order, lashed a sinking liner to right that fell in and gave the Bears a 3-2 lead.
“We saved it all for the end,” Parker said. “We were down, but we figured we weren’t out. We still had it in us. We didn’t panic too much.”
Joe Hough’s sacrifice bunt set the stage for Matt McGraw’s sacrifice fly to center for the eventual winning run and Barrett’s hard RBI single to right.
“There was no tightness on the bench,” said McGraw, who singled three times. “It was sort of like we knew we were going to score. We were playing this like a do-or-die game because no one wanted to come back [Sunday] and play again.”
BLACK BEARS 5, SEAWOLVES 3
(Saturday Afternoon)
Maine (35-20-1) Stony Brook (25-29)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
Hough, cf 4 0 1 0 Witkowski, cf 5 1 0
McGraw, dh 4 0 3 1 Sipp, 2b 5 0 1
Barrett, 1b 5 0 2 1 Pennino, 1b 5 0 1
Quintal, lf 4 0 0 0 Perez, 3b 5 0 0
Smith, ss 4 1 1 0 Pasieka, c 4 0 0
McAvoy, 3b 4 1 2 0 DiBiaso, ss 4 1 0
Hackett, 3b 0 0 0 0 Leonard, rf 4 0 0
Ostrander, rf 4 1 2 1 Fortuna, dh 3 0
Parker, c 4 1 1 1 Milani, lf 3 0 0
Menendez, 2b 4 1 2 1
Totals 37 5 14 5 Totals 38 3 11 2
Maine 000 000 005 – 5
Stony Brook 000 000 111 – 3
LOB-Maine 8; SBU 11; 2B-Barrett, McAvoy, Ostrander; Witkowski; DP-Sipp-Pennino; S-Hough; SF-McGraw; SB-Perez (5)
Maine IP H R ER BB SO
Mendoza 7 2/3 9 2 2 3 2
Martin (W, 7-4) 1/3 0 0 0 0 0
Balsinde (S, 4) 1 2 1 1 0 0
Stony Brook IP H R ER BB SO
Errigo 5 1/3 5 0 0 1 2
Jung 2 2/3 3 0 0 0 0
Abel (L, 2-2) 0 3 3 3 0 0
Novakowski 2/3 3 2 2 0 0
Brown 1/3 0 0 0 0 0
Abel pitched to 3 batters in 9th
WP-Martin; Jung; T-2:44; ATT-476
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