The University of Maine’s five-win softball season came to a close on Thursday evening, as the Black Bears fell to Bryant 7-4 in day two of the America East tournament.
UMaine previously came back to defeat No. 3 Bryant in extras on Wednesday, but got sent to the losers bracket by No. 2 Binghamton earlier today. Bryant made sure not to give the last-place Black Bears any rope this time around, scoring seven total runs on fifth-year Isabelle True and sophomore Alysen Reith by the end of the third inning.
UMaine was held hitless by Bryant’s arms through four and a third innings, before junior catcher Nora Campo (2-for-3) hit a solo shot to center to score the tournament host’s first run of the game.
“I was just trying to hit it up the middle. It was exciting to play in front of our fans,” Campo said. “We have strong characters on this team. It’s nice going into [the box] knowing no matter what happens, my team has my back.”
The Black Bears continued to show fight in the sixth and seventh, with Campo and junior co-captain Katie Jo Moery hitting doubles, later being driven home by sophomore Gabby Papushka and junior Rylee Kent, respectively. But it was ultimately too little, too late for the tournament hosts, who were finally sent packing by Bryant’s fourth pitcher of the game, Lexi Powell.
“Our backs were against the wall. We didn’t set ourselves up for a good game,” Moery said. “This was a hard year for us. A lot of people were playing their last game, which kind of ignited some fire and we put the ball in play.”
UMaine will graduate fifth-year captains Cat Fallon and Isabelle True among other key players this offseason, which makes the rebuilding process even murkier for a team that finished with a 2-22 record against America East opposition.
Fallon led the team in batting (.289 average) and pitching (6.16 ERA over 83 innings) this year, and belted two homers earlier in the tournament.
“We competed and never gave up. I’m proud of our team, we’ve been through a lot,” three-year UMaine head softball coach Jordan Fitzpatrick said. “Our seniors left it all out there on the field, it’ll be hard for us not to have them. Hopefully we can bring in some new faces that can step up, and we had some underclassmen do some good things for us this week too.”
UMaine finished with a 5-41 overall record this year, getting outscored 123 to 333. In 2023, the Black Bears went 16-39 overall, and in 2022 they finished 8-37 — their last winning season was in 2016.
