UMaine baseball team loses DH Goodman for season due to knee injury

The number of University of Maine baseball players being shelved for the season due to injury continued to grow on Wednesday.

Reigning All-America East designated hitter Connor Goodman suffered a season-ending knee injury in Wednesday’s 11-4 win over Division III Husson University of Bangor. The win put Maine’s overall record at 4-16.

UMaine head coach Nick Derba said Goodman took four steps out of the batter’s box heading to first base “when he dropped like he was shot.”

The graduate student from Miami Beach, Florida was hitting .261 this season with six runs-batted in and six runs scored.

Goodman hit .311 a year ago with two homers, 47 runs batted in and 28 runs scored. He hit eight doubles.

“He has been a big part of our team for a few years,” said Derba. “It’s a huge loss. He has been protecting the best hitter in the league (junior first baseman Jeremiah Jenkins) in the lineup. He’s a two-out nightmare.

“But what can you do?” Derba said.

Twenty-two of Goodman’s first 42 RBIs came off two-out hits a year ago.

Freshman Will Burns will replace him as the DH in the lineup.

Burns has a double in his only official at-bat.

Prior to the season, UMaine lost 2023 All-America East first team pitcher Colin Fitzgerald (hip  surgery) and 2022 All-AE Rookie team pitcher Caleb Leys (Tommy John elbow surgery). Leyus was chosen to the America East tourney team last season.

And two promising freshmen outfielders, Chase Trolaro (knee) and Evan Baschnagel (elbow), will also miss the rest of the season.

Another freshman with a positive upside, Charlie Taub, suffered a broken hand but he is expected back according to Derbe.

“It seems like every game this year I’ve had to address somebody’s injury,” said Derba.

One of the bright spots in the UMaine win over Husson was the performance of senior righthander Noah Lewis from South Portland. He threw three innings of three-hit, one-run ball with three strikeouts and one walk.

With the loss of Fitzgerald and Leys, there is even a bigger onus on All-America East second teamer Lewis and All-AE first-teamer Gianni Gambardella, a sophomore righthander.

Both have struggled mightily.

Lewis was 7-1 with a 4.32 earned run average last season and limited opponents to a .200 batting average while allowing only 63 hits in 85 ⅓ innings.

He entered the Husson game with an 0-4 record, an 18.00 ERA and 21 walks and seven hit batters in 16 innings of work. He also gave up five homers among the 27 hits he has allowed.

“It was huge to see Noah go out and throw strikes,” said Derba. “He has always thrown strikes. He was just going through a rough patch.”

Gambardella, 6-3 with a 3.90 ERA as a Freshman All-American a year ago, is 0-4 with a 7.34 ERA. He has given up 40 hits, including 14 extra-base hits, in 34 ⅓ innings of work with 32 strikeouts and 16 walks.

But he is also coming off a good outing in the America East-opening series at Bryant University last weekend, giving up just one earned run over 6 ⅔ innings of a 5-4 loss with seven strikeouts and four walks.

Two freshman pitchers, righthander Jason Krieger and lefty Gabe Gifford from Old Town, have given Derba some quality innings.

Krieger is 1-1 with a team-best 4.50 ERA. He hasn’t allowed a home run in 28 innings and opponents are hitting just .236 against him.

Gifford is 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA and has struck out 22 in 15 innings. Opponents are hitting only .214 against him. He has walked 17.

Sophomore reliever Luc Lavigueur made his first career start in Sunday’s series finale and tossed seven innings of four-hit shutout baseball with six strikeouts and one walk to earn a 1-0 win over Bryant. UMaine had lost the first two in extra innings by 5-4 scores.

Senior Colton Carson from Oxford Hills came on to retire all six hitters he faced to earn the save. He struck out four.

Derba has faith that Geoff Mosseau, Marshall Smaracko and Ryan Scott can be productive relievers.

“We’re trending (in the right direction),” said Derba about his pitching staff.

Offensively, the Black Bears continue to evolve after losing All-America East first teamers Quinn McDaniel and Jake Rainess, who combined to hit 32 homers, score 150 runs, drive in 92 and steal 70 bases in leading UMaine to the conference championship and an NCAA Tournament berth.

Maryland transfer Zach Martin (.333-1 homer-11 runs batted in) and senior shortstop Jake Marquez (.303-3-14) have led the way along with America East Player of the Year and third team All-American first baseman Jeremiah Jenkins (.284-9-19). Myles Sargent is hitting .270 with seven RBIs and Colin Plante is hitting .256.

Marquez had been playing third but shortstops Jeph Hadson-Taylor and Jonathan Gonzalez were 7-for-53 at the plate so Marquez was moved over to short and freshman Jack Friend (2-for-12) is now at third.

“If we can pitch and get timely hits, we can win the conference,” said Derba. “We have faced a lot of adversity. We have to go out and play like we have nothing to lose.”

UMaine (1-2 in the conference) will travel to Albany for three conference games on Friday (3 p.m.), Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (noon) and will play its America East home-opening series the following weekend at the same times against the New Jersey Institute of Technology.