UMaine suffers 2nd loss McAvoy, Forrest strong for Bears

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Six Florida Atlantic pitchers combined to limit the University of Maine to five hits Tuesday night while earning a 3-1 baseball victory over the Black Bears at FAU Stadium.

Florida Atlantic (13-3) reached Black Bears starter Brad Hertzler (0-1) for two runs on one hit, two walks, a hit batter and an error and made the runs stand up.

Hertzler, a junior transfer from the Community College of Rhode Island, rebounded after a shaky first to pitch five shutout innings. The lefthander struck out four, walked three and made an errant pickoff throw.

Kevin McAvoy of Brewer paced the Bears with three hits, including an RBI single in the eighth. Matt McGraw and Joel Barrett of Brewer added singles.

Starter Chris Eberhart (1-0) pitched three scoreless innings to get the win for FAU, which managed only eight hits. Daniel Cook led the Owls with three singles, including a two-run hit in the first. Nick Arata posted two singles.

FAU pitchers struck out 11 and walked three.

The Bears trailed 3-0 in the eighth when McGraw was hit by a pitch with one out and advanced on Barrett’s two-out single. McAvoy followed with an RBI single through the right side, but Sean Parker popped up to end the inning.

Redshirt freshman Ryan Forrest, a transfer from Creighton University, worked 1 2/3 innings of one-hit relief for the Bears.

UMaine coach Steve Trimper was ejected from the game in the second inning for arguing a check-swing call.

Maine (2-2) 000 000 010 – 1 5 1

Florida Atlantic (13-3) 200 000 10x – 3 8 0

Hertzler, Moran (7), Forrest (7) and Parker; Eberhart, Tomlin (4), Obradovich (5), Cooney (6), Pepe (7), Salberg (7) and Martin

RPI 16, Husson 4

At Odessa, Fla., Ken Carroll went 5-for-5 with a home run to lead Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to victory over Husson College of Bangor.

Adam Lasek added four hits and two runs scored for the Red Hawks.

UMaine transfer Nick Arthers doubled, singled and drove in a run while Danny White singled twice for Husson.

Husson (1-2) 300 100 000 – 4 7 5

RPI (5-0) 048 210 10x – 16 18 1

DeRosa, Morris (3), White (7) and Robicheau; Novick, Opperman (2), Surprenant (7), Carroll (9) and Pollard, Soprano (8)

Softball

Black Bears split two games

At Orlando, Fla., senior co-captain Kate Joseph led the University of Maine offensively as she blasted her first career home run as the Black Bears defeated Holy Cross 16-3 in the second game of the day.

Monmouth shut out UMaine 12-0 in the first game.

Jessica Ghazali pitched all five innings against Holy Cross and picked up her second straight win as she improved to 2-0 on the season.