The University of Maine’s baseball team won only two of its first 18 non-conference games and took a 13-game losing streak into Wednesday’s game against the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
But ninth-year head coach Nick Derba said there have been plenty of positives and is focused on this weekend’s America East-opening three-game series at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
The Black Bears, chosen fifth among seven teams in the America East preseason coaches poll, will play the 7-8 Retrievers at 3 p.m. on Friday, 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. All will be nine-inning games at Alumni Field.
Late-inning collapses have proved costly lately and have tainted the Black Bears’ record.
Winthrop scored three eighth-inning runs to snap a 3-3 tie and beat UMaine 6-3; Dayton scored five in the ninth to erase a 9-5 deficit and win 10-9; Nebraska scored three in the ninth to rally past UMaine 6-5 and then scored five in the ninth the next day to pull out an 8-7 victory.
“We’ve been playing pretty well but we need to figure out who can close out games for us,” Derba said.
“We’ve had the opportunity to win some games but our pitching has held us back,” he added.
Falmouth righty Brennan Rumpf and fellow sophomores Tommy Martin and Jack Donlin are three of the candidates for the closer role along with last year’s saves leader, redshirt senior Sebastian Holt, and senior Pierce Friedman.
Holt had seven saves a year ago.
He has one of the two saves this spring with Donlin notching the other.
The starting rotation features senior righty Gianni Gambardella, a former All-America East first team and All-Rookie team selection and two-time second team pick. He was also a Freshman All-American and the America East tournament Most Valuable Player.
Redshirt junior Jason Krieger was an All-Rookie team pick two years ago when he had the lowest earned-run average on the team at 5.26 and the most strikeouts with 54. He missed all of last year due to injury.
Senior Vaun Larisa is the other starter and he made five appearances a year ago and four already this season.
The team has an 8.24 earned run average with 104 walks, 108 strikeouts and 28 hit batters over 145 ⅓ innings. Opponents have collected 171 hits, including 24 homers, and are hitting .292.
Offensively, the Black Bears are hitting .229 but already have 27 homers in 18 games after hitting 53 in 51 games a year ago.
“I feel really good about our offense. We’re hitting way more homers than last year and that’s a big part of our offense,” said Derba.
Graduate student right fielder Juju Stevens, a transfer from Georgia Southern after beginning his career at Missouri, has led the way with seven homers to go with 11 runs-batted in and a .308 average.
Sophomore left fielder and leadoff hitter Quinn Murphy is the leading hitter, average-wise, at .348 and he has three homers and eight RBIs.
Junior catcher Shane Andrus is at .286 with a homer and three driven in; freshman third baseman Troy Carpenter is at .246 with five homers and a team-leading 16 RBIs and freshman
DH Rex Hauser has homered three times and driven in eight to go with his .241 average.
Redshirt junior shortstop Albert De La Rosa, who missed last year due to injury, is at .239-2-5; sophomore second baseman Chris Mondesir is at .222 with two RBIs; senior CF Brody Rasmussen is at .215-2-8 and freshman 1B Hunter St. Denis is second on the team in RBIs with 12 to go with three homers and a .203 average.
Senior shortstop Chris Bear hit .271 a year ago and led the team in stolen bases with 15, but is recovering from a hand injury.
Senior Drew Reynolds, a first baseman, is hitting .167 after hitting .272 a year ago with four homers and 34 RBIs.
Junior Nic Pepe (.185) had been the starting second baseman but got hurt.
Bear, Gambardella, Holt and Rasmussen, a .307 hitter with seven homers and 32 RBIs in 2025, were chosen to the All-America East Preseason Team.
Rasmussen was a first team All-America East pick a year ago and second baseman Aidan Bardi, currently hitting .185, was chosen to the All-Rookie team.
The Black Bears committed 19 errors in their first 18 games and Derba expects his team to be “very good” defensively.
Derba said they have played some “really good teams” like Duke, Dayton, Winthrop, High Point and Nebraska and faced some quality pitchers and that should prove to be beneficial in their conference games.
Junior pitcher Jason Libby from Bangor and Bangor Christian will miss the season due to injury, Derba said. Libby made 17 appearances for UMaine a year ago.
Derba, whose team went 20-31 in 2025, 13-11 in the conference, and was ousted in the single elimination round of the tournament by Albany, said the goal is always the same.
“Win the tournament,” said Derba, whose team last did so in 2023.
UMaine will play its home openers against UMass Lowell on March 27, 28 and 29, with game times at 3 p.m., 1 p.m. and noon, respectively.
