UMaine baseball wins 2 of 3 games against Binghamton

This weekend for the first time this season, the University of Maine’s injury-laden baseball team won an America East series.

The defending America East-champion Black Bears followed a 4-3 Friday win over the Binghamton Bearcats with a 9-3 victory on Saturday.

Binghamton salvaged the finale on Sunday, pounding out 19 hits and scoring 15 runs in the first two innings en route to a 21-4 victory.

UMaine is now 6-8 in the conference and 10-29 overall while Binghamton is 7-11 and 17-22, respectively.

On Sunday, Binghamton’s Devan Bade and Evin Sullivan each drove in four runs and on four hits, including their second homers of the season.

Sullivan had a triple and two singles to go with his homer, and Bade had a double and two singles to accompany his homer.

Also for the Bearcats, Zach Rogacki belted his second homer of the season and doubled for three RBIs. Tommy Reifler and Sam Haney had two singles each.

Spencer Howell earned the win with six innings of five-hit, two-run ball. He is now 1-1.

UMaine’s Jeremiah Jenkins hit his 19th homer of the campaign and had two singles. Dean O’Neill had two doubles and a single and Logan Burrill hit his third homer of the season.

Noah Lewis took the loss for the Black Bears.

On Saturday, Luc Lavigueur and Ryan Scott teamed up on a six-hitter, and the Black Bears erupted for five runs in the eighth inning to break the game open.

Lavigueur tossed five innings of four-hit two-run baseball with three strikeouts and four walks in earning his second win in four decisions.

Scott picked up his first save with four impressive innings of two-hit one-run. The only run was unearned. He struck out two and walked one.

UMaine was holding a 4-3 lead when it put the game away with its five-run outburst in the eighth.

Will Burns drew a lead-off walk and Burrill came on to pinch run for him.

Jake Marquez singled to left and O’Neill singled to right to score Burrill. Colin Plante was hit by a pitch and Jeph Hadson-Taylor walked to force in a run.

Zach Martin was hit by a pitch to force in another run and a wild pitch and Connor Goodman’s base hit produced the fourth and fifth runs.

O’Neill’s three-run homer in the fourth erased a 1-0 deficit and gave UMaine a lead it would never relinquish. It was his fourth homer of the season.

O’Neill paced the attack with his four runs batted in courtesy of his homer and single. Jenkins doubled and singled and Marquez singled twice. Burns had an RBI single.

Bade drove in two runs for the Bearcats with a single and a sacrifice fly. Reifler doubled and singled, and Rogacki had a run-scoring double.

On Friday, Hadson-Taylor’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth delivered Marquez in UMaine’s walk-off triumph

Marquez had opened the inning with a double to left center field and he moved to third on O’Neill’s grounder to second. Plante was intentionally walked and he stole second before Hadson-Taylor lofted his game-ending sacrifice fly to right.

Jenkins belted his 17th and 18th homers of the season, both solo shots. Hadson-Taylor had a run-scoring single to go with his sacrifice fly. Marquez and Plante each doubled.

Rogacki had two singles and walked twice for Binghamton.

Mike Stellrecht hit a two-run single in the sixth to give Binghamton a 3-2 lead, but Jenkins homered to right in the bottom of the sixth to tie it.

Geoff Mosseau picked up the win in relief with three innings of hitless shutout relief. He struck out four and walked one. He is now 2-1. Starter Jason Krieger allowed three runs over six innings, but just one was earned. He struck out five and walked four and gave up four hits, all singles.

UMaine will travel to the University of Maryland Baltimore County for conference games at 3 p.m. Thursday, noon Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday.

Binghamton will host Cornell for a non-conference game at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.