Three weeks ago, the University of Maine’s baseball team was positioned nicely to earn a first or second seed for this week’s America East Tournament at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
That would mean a first-round bye for the six-team tourney.
But the Black Bears had a major collapse, losing five of its last six conference games and fell from first to fourth, which means they will have to win Wednesday’s 1 p.m. tourney opener against the surging Albany Great Danes to continue on to the four-team, double-elimination format on Thursday.
Wednesday’s other elimination game will pit No. 3 Binghamton (13-11, 25-23) against sixth seed the University of Maryland Baltimore County (8-16, 18-27) at 5 p.m.
Maine, which was swept in a three-game non-conference series at UConn this past weekend, wound up 13-11 in the conference while Albany finished at 10-14 but won seven of its last nine league games.
Both teams are 20-30 overall.
The UMaine-Albany winner will take on league regular season titlist Bryant (18-6, 33-17-1 overall) in Thursday’s 11 a.m. game that opens the double-elimination format.
The Binghamton-UMBC winner will advance to take on second seed the New Jersey Institute of Technology (14-10, 27-24) in Thursday’s 3 p.m. game.
The losers of Thursday’s first two games will play an elimination game at 7 p.m.
There will be games at 1 and 5 on Friday and the championship round begins Saturday at 1. The tournament champ earns a berth in the NCAA Division I Tournament.
Bryant is the defending champ; UMaine won it two years ago and Binghamton triumphed in 2022. UMBC last won it in 2017, Albany’s last title was in 2007 and NJIT has yet to win it.
But this is just the fifth season in the league for NJIT.
UMaine head coach Nick Derba is disappointed in his team’s finish but said there were a lot of positives to take out of the UConn series and pointed out that the regular season is in the rear view mirror and everyone starts the tournament 0-0.
“As far as I’m concerned, we’re positioned to go out and win four straight games. That’s what we’re here to do,” Derba added. “We’re in the best position we could be in considering [our finish].”
UMaine swept Albany in their only three games but that was back on the weekend of April 11-13 in Albany, 3-2, 11-3 and 12-1.
“They’re hot and we’re not,” said Derba. “All good teams play well at the right time and that’s what Albany coach Jon Mueller] does. They’ve been playing really well.
“If we’re going to win it, we’re going to need a collective effort from everyone, especially the bullpen,” Derba said.
Redshirt junior lefthander Caleb Leys will get the start for the Black Bears on Wednesday. He is 5-1 with a 2.44 earned-run average. He has struck out 70 and walked 25 in 59 innings.
He has pitched just one inning since May 3 due to some triceps tightness but Derba said Leys threw a bullpen session last Friday and feels good.
He picked up the 11-3 win over Albany with five innings of three-hit, two-run (both unearned) ball with seven strikeouts and one walk.
Junior righty Gianni Gambardella is 5-4 with a 4.82 ERA and has a 3.27 ERA over his last two starts.
The Black Bears have a team ERA of 5.76.
Derba said his team has “underperformed” offensively but did string together some quality at-bats against UConn and did get some good pitching performances.
Freshman third baseman Evan Menzel (.354-4 homers-18 runs batted in) and senior second baseman Myles Sargent (.335-7-40) have been UMaine’s offensive catalysts along with redshirt junior center fielder Brody Rasmussen (.308-7-31), junior first baseman Drew Reynolds (.278-4-34) and junior catcher Dean O’Neill (.277-7-31).
UMaine is hitting .274 as a team.
Albany has been led by senior first baseman Ryan Ferremi (.292-4-34), redshirt sophomore catcher Levi McAllister (.290-8-48) and junior center fielder Luke Filippi (.281-5-33).
Junior righty Dylan Banner (5-5, 3.67) has been the ace of the staff and allowed just three runs on 11 hits in seven innings of work in the 3-2 loss to UMaine.
Albany is hitting .253 and has a team ERA of 7.48.
Both teams are averaging six runs per game.
