Maine Eliminates Stony Brook 3-0 To Advance

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Pitching continues to be the story of the America East tourney as the Maine Black Bears got a gem of a performance from Sophomore Nick Silva and a save from Jeff Gelinas. The win sends another team home from this event as they beat Stony Brook 3-0 to advance and meet Binghamton on Saturday

Maine struck for two in the third vs Seawolves hurler Greg Marino. Leadoff hitter Jeremy Pena singled to center field, part of a three-hit night and getting to base five times. After a sac bunt and two bases on balls loaded the sacks, junior Jonathan Beckett came through with a two-run single to left field scoring both Pena and Christopher Bec to give the Black Bears a 2-0 lead through three.

However, the story of this game was Silva, who was on his game from the beginning. He gave up a leadoff double to Toby Handley to begin the game and then shut the door until running out of gas in the ninth. His line of 8.2 innings three hits, ten strikeouts and six walks tells you all you need to know about his outing. There were times it looked like the Seawolves would break through and score off him, but he had an answer every time.

Maine tacked on one more run in the seventh. Pena was hit by pitch off Marino was advanced to second on a bunt. He came around to score when Bec’s ground ball to third was thrown away by third baseman Bobby Honeyman. The unearned run made the score 3-0 Maine.

Stony Brook had one last chance to stay alive in the ninth. After Silva got the first two hitters he would face, he ran into trouble. Brandon Janofsky ripped a double down the LF line, his third of the season. It was followed by a single to left field by Jeremy Giles. Giles was then WP to second to put runners in scoring position. Black Bears Head Coach Nick Derba wasted no time going to the hill and getting his starter and replacing him with Senior RHP Jeff Gelinas who was brought on to get one batter. That hitter was Cody Clark who with one swing could have tied the game. Instead, he was called out on strikes, game over and season over for Stony Brook.

For Silva the win put him at 2-2, Gelinas got save number seven. Losing pitcher was Marino who is now 2-3 on the year.

Three more games are on tap in Lowell on Saturday with the first game to get underway at 11 am.