The University of Albany Great Danes have pushed the defending America East champion University of Maine baseball team to the brink of elimination for a spot in the league tournament.
Albany erupted for five runs in the fourth inning, four coming with two outs, to beat the Black Bears 6-3 at Mahaney Diamond on Thursday afternoon.
Albany sophomore righthander Dylan Banner had a no-hitter through six innings and lost his no-hit bid with one out in the seventh when Connor Goodman doubled.
Nick White singled and Goodman scored on Jake Marquez’s sacrifice fly.
Banner, who improved to 4-2 including three straight conference wins, tossed eight innings of two-hit, one-run ball with 10 strikeouts and no walks.
Geoff Mosseau took the loss and is now 2-3.
Albany’s win means the only way the Black Bears can avoid becoming the first team since the 2015 Binghamton club to miss the playoffs the year after winning the tournament is by beating the Great Danes on Friday (1 p.m.) and Saturday (noon).
The Great Danes need just one win to clinch the final playoff spot for the six-team double-elimination tournament in Binghamton on May 21-25.
Albany is now 9-12 in the conference with six wins in its last seven league games. The Great Danes are 14-32-1 overall.
UMaine fell to 7-14 and 11-36, respectively.
UMaine rallied against reliever Steven Turk in the ninth as he didn’t retire any of the four hitters he faced and gave up a two-run homer to Jeremiah Jenkins, his 21st of the year.
But Cregg Sherrer came on to shut the door as UMaine left the bases loaded.
Albany took a 1-0 lead in the second on a Levi McAllister base hit and John Vitucci’s run-scoring ground rule double.
The Great Danes broke the game open in the fourth.
McAllister homered to open the inning. A walk and two outs later, Luke Myers had a bunt single and Ryan Ferremi followed with a run-scoring single.
Following another walk to load the bases, Luke Filippi cleared the bases with a double down the left field line.
