The University of Maine’s baseball team has had its season ended the past two seasons by Albany.
But the third time was a charm for the third-seeded Black Bears as they roughed up America East Pitcher of the Year Dylan Banner to the tune of 15 hits and 11 runs in just 5 ⅔ innings and cruised to an 11-5 victory over the sixth-seeded Great Danes in an America East play-in game at the Binghamton Bearcats Baseball Complex in Vestal, New York on Wednesday night.
The Black Bears, now 22-30, will take on second seed the University of Maryland Baltimore County, 28-22, in Thursday’s 3 p.m. game in the four-team double-elimination phase of the tournament.
Top seed Binghamton and fifth seed UMass Lowell, a 7-5 winner over fourth seed Bryant in 11 innings earlier Wednesday, will open Thursday’s play at 11 a.m.
The losers of Thursday’s first two games will meet in an elimination game at 7 on Thursday.
The Black Bears spotted the Great Danes a 3-1 lead before taking the lead for good with a four-run rally in the second and another run in the third and then produced a decisive five-run uprising in the sixth inning after Albany had pulled within 6-5.
Albert De La Rosa started the sixth-inning rally with a single to right and Brody Rasmussen reached on a bunt single. One out later, Nic Pepe singled to center field to drive in the first run of the inning.
Pepe stole second and Juju Stevens singled to center to drive in a pair of runs to make it 9-5. Hunter St. Denis singled and Troy Carpenter walked to load the bases and Quinn Murphy capped the rally with a two-run double down the right field line which also chased Banner in favor of Matthew Mariano.
Senior Banner hadn’t allowed more than six earned runs in any start this season and had held opponents to three earned runs or fewer in six of his previous eight appearances.
Pepe, who had belted his seventh homer of the season, a three-run shot, in the second inning, finished with two singles to go with his homer and he drove in four runs. He had gone 4-for-9 with a homer and four RBIs in a three-game sweep of Albany in Orono last weekend.
All-America East second teamer De La Rosa went 3-for-4 including his fourth homer of the season and he is now hitting .419 over his last 11 games with 13 runs batted in.
Quinn Murphy doubled and singled and knocked in a pair of runs and he is now 9-for-22 (.409) over his last six games with nine RBIs.
Stevens had three singles and drove in two runs and the All-America East first teamer extended his hitting streak to six games (8-22, .364). He has knocked in 11 runs during his six-game streak.
Shane Andrus had a pair of singles.
All-America East first team pitcher Jason Krieger went 6 ⅓ innings to pick up his fourth win in 10 decisions and third in his last four. He allowed 11 hits and five earned runs with seven strikeouts and two walks.
Pierce Friedman and Sebastian Holt threw the final 2 ⅔ innings and allowed just one hit and no runs.
Cooper Loyal had two doubles and two singles for the 15-34 Great Danes. Patrick DeSarno had three singles and Luke Filippi had a pair of hits.
Albany had beaten UMaine 6-4 a year ago in the play-in game in Orono and posted a 4-3 victory in the final regular season game in 2024 which kept UMaine out of the tournament.
