A year after winning the America East championship and playing in the NCAA’s Coral Gables (Florida) Regional in 2023, the injury-plagued University of Maine Black Bears baseball team failed to qualify for the league tournament last spring.
Six of seven teams qualify.
“To not make the playoffs is an absolute disgrace,” said eight-year UMaine baseball coach Nick Derba. “That’s never going to happen again.”
So Derba and his coaching staff brought in 22 new players to go with the 17 returnees.
“Overhauling the roster is something you have to do sometimes,” said Derba, whose Black Bears went 12-37 overall and 8-15 in conference play.
This year, UMaine is hosting the six-team America East Tournament and Derba and his players have their sights set on finishing in the top two in order to earn a first-round bye.
The Black Bears were picked to finish in a tie for third in the preseason America East poll as they seek to turn the page from last year.
The primary reason behind the forgettable 2024 campaign was a pitching staff that produced a dismal 8.88 earned-run average and walked an average of 7.77 hitters per game.
Only four teams walked more hitters among the 295 Division I programs and just 12 had a higher earned-run average.
Injuries ravaged the pitching staff in particular.
Righthander Colin Fitzgerald, a first team All-America East selection and member of the All-Rookie team in 2023, and 2022 All-Rookie Team pick Caleb Leys, a lefty, never threw a pitch last season as both were sidelined by injuries.
Righty Gianni Gambardella, a Freshman All-American in 2023 and first team All-America East selection, missed five weeks due to elbow tendonitis and appeared in only 10 games. He was 2-4 with a 5.68 ERA after being 6-3 with a 3.90 ERA in 2023.
Gambardella was also an All-Rookie team pick in 2023 and chosen the America East tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
All three have rejoined the starting rotation.
Fitzgerald, 6-2, 5.23 ERA in 2023, is slated to pitch the Feb. 14 opener at Louisiana Tech; Leys will be available but will be on a pitch count for at least the first two weekends of the season and Gambardella will miss the four-game series at Louisiana Tech but could be back in week two or week three, according to Derba.
Gambardella is a junior while Fitzgerald and Leys are redshirt juniors.
But righthander Jason Krieger, an All-Rookie team selection last season, will miss the season due to offseason surgery.
Sophomore lefty Gabe Gifford from Old Town showed promise by striking out 48 hitters in 34 innings of work last season but he also walked 52 and was 0-5 with a 10.06 ERA.
“He has looked very good,” Derba said of Gifford.
Junior right Luc Lavigueur will also return after finishing strong last season, posting a 2.21 ERA over his last two outings spanning 12 ⅔ innings. He wound up 4-1 in conference games, 4-3 in all games.
His overall record was 4-3 and he had a 6.75 ERA.
That will give Derba five experienced starters to begin the year.
Former Bangor Christian standout Jason Libby headlines a list of newcomers along with juniors Vaun Larisa and Pierce Friedman and freshman Tommy Martin, according to Derba.
Redshirt junior Sebastian Holt, junior Blaine Cockburn from Durham and Freeport High School, and sophomore Owen Wheeler have limited experience and could bolster the pitching staff.
Holt hasn’t pitched in a year and a half due to injury while Cockburn (1-1, 14.26 ERA) and Wheeler (1-0, 12.73) struggled a year ago but have improved, said Derba.
“We will be better and deeper in every way on the mound,” said Derba. “We will be able to throw way more strikes from top to bottom.”
Around the diamond, the Black Bears return three starters in senior second baseman Myles Sargent, who hit .324 with one homer and 14 runs batted in last year, junior catcher Dean O’Neill (.272-7-22) and senior right fielder Zach Martin (.286-3-21).
Martin will be part of the designated hitter rotation, according to Derba.
Redshirt freshmen Chase Trolaro and Evan Baschnagel are back in the outfield after coming off injury-marred campaigns. Trolaro played in just four games last season and Baschnagel didn’t play in any.
Lassen Community College transfer Brody Rasmussen, an All-American last season when he hit .420 with nine homers and 58 RBIs, will start in center field.
Freshman Quinn Murphy and Westminster College (Mo.) transfer Payton Whitehead are also outfield possibilities. Whitehead, who hit .353 with 12 homers and 53 RBIs for Westminster, can also play in the infield and is considered a “super utility player” by Derba..
Cypress College (Cal.) transfer Albert De La Rosa will start at third base. He hit .390 at Cypress a year ago. Transfer Chris Bear will be at short after hitting .463 with 48 RBIs and 37 stolen bases at Northern Essex Community College (Mass.) last spring; along with Sargent at second and the first baseman will be Drew Reynolds from Lassen Community College where he hit .362 with 14 homers and 51 RBIs last season.
Bear was named the Gold Glove Shortstop recipient, a recognition which is awarded to the best fielder at that position among junior college players and he also was a first team All-American.
Freshmen Caleb Vacchiano from Cornish, Jack Quigley and Evan Menzel are solid defensive infielders according to Derba.
O’Neill, who played in just 17 games behind the plate last spring due to a concussion, will be backed up by sophomore Will Burns, who hit .244 in 27 games for UMaine last spring, and Northern Essex Community College transfer Eric Wainwright (.345, 26 RBIs).
Graduate student transfer Damon Gaither hit .260 with a team-leading nine homers and 35 RBIs for Coppin State (Md.) a year ago, is an infielder who will also be in the designated hitter picture with Martin, Burns and Whitehead.
Derba will have a new coaching staff this year as Scott Heath left to become the head coach at the University of Southern Maine. Zach Scott and Tom Erick also departed.
Cejay Suarez, Nick White and Camden MacDonald have replaced them and Jackson Root has moved from baseball operations director to an assistant coach.
White and MacDonald played for UMaine last season.
Derba said the team defense should be much better than a year ago and his hitters should make more contact — and not strike out 7.8 times a game as they did last season.
“Hopefully, the guys will go out there and grind out at-bats. We’ve built a team that won’t strike out (much). We will have a lot of different ways to score runs,” Derba said. “I’m hoping we play really boring baseball: good defense, good pitching, hit-and-runs, bunts and being able to hit situationally.”
In the same poll where Maine was picked to finish tied for third, defending champ Bryant was picked to finish first with 35 points and five first-place votes. Binghamton was second with 30 points and the other two first-place votes. UMaine and the New Jersey Institute of Technology were third with 21 points followed by UMass Lowell (18), the University of Maryland Baltimore County (15) and Albany (7).
“If we play good clean baseball, make routine plays, throw strikes and hit strikes, those things will take care of themselves,” he said.
