America East Baseball News & Notes: On to Orono, Maine

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The regular season of the America East baseball season has concluded, and the six teams that will compete for the postseason title are on their way to Orono, Maine for the tournament that gets underway on Wednesday morning. The final weekend of play produced some surprises With possibly even more as tournament play begins. It has been a fun spring so far and there is no reason to think that this upcoming week will be any different. Let’s look back at how the season ended.

There were co-champs in the regular season in America East. Maine (21-9) and Stony Brook (21-9) finished with the same record and won their divisions. The difference is, how they got there. Maine finished up their season on the road at Hartford. The Hawks (11-19) had a slim chance of extending their season when the series began. Since no team had swept the Black Bears during the year, it was hard to believe that Hartford could. Well, guess what, the Hawks took advantage of playing in the launching pad known as Fiondella Field. The Hawks hit nine home runs in the three-game series, the Black Bears hit five. Third baseman Derek Tenney of Hartford was a one-man wrecking crew. He went 7-for-13 with five runs scored, three home runs, and nine RBI. It could be said that Tenney put his team on his back and delivered when they needed it most. The Black Bears pitching staff had no answer for Tenney or for the Hartford lineup. Because of that, Maine starts the tournament on a three-game losing streak, while Hartford arrives on a four-game winning streak. How things can change just like that.

Stony Brook was just playing out the season when they hosted NJIT (15-15). The Highlanders were in a good spot when the series started. However, it did not last long. On Thursday, the Seawolves received an outstanding pitching performance from starter Ben Fero (4-4) who went 8.1 innings allowing six hits, three earned runs, zero walks, and 11 strikeouts. The offense was supplied by Matt Brown-Eiring with a two-run HR in the sixth, and a solo shot from Derek Yalon earlier in the game. Stony Brook took game one 5-3. On Friday, the Highlanders came back and evened the series winning a wild ballgame 18-16 at Joe Nathan Field. David Marcano was 3-for-6, 4 RBI, RS, and Paul Franzoni went 3-for-7, 5 RBI, 3 RS, and a HR. They were the big offensive stars in this one. Anthony Eppinger got the win (1-0) despite giving up 7 ER, and 4H, in 3.2 innings. On Sunday, Stony Brook claimed their part of the regular-season title with a walk-off 6-5 win in ten innings. The SeaWolves were trailing 5-0 heading to the sixth and then they scored five times in the sixth to tie the game at 5-5. Evan Giordano hit a three-run HR in the inning to bring his team back within a run at 5-4. Then in the tenth off of Drew Standen, he ripped a single to CF to score Cole Durkin with the winning run to knock NJIT out of the second spot in the tournament. The Highlanders must now play Hartford on Wednesday afternoon. For Stony Brook, they claimed their third straight regular-season title.

Binghamton (15-15) becomes the number two seed and waits to find out who they will play on Thursday afternoon. The Bearcats took two of three from UMBC (11-19) on the road to get the extra day of rest. After losing the first game 14-11, they got an unexpected bad outing from their number one starter Thomas Babalis 3-6 (3, 1IP, 8 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 3 SO, one HR allowed). The Bearcats came back and took the next two games to get the #2 seed. On Friday, John Lumpinski came out of the pen and replaced Gabe Driscoll who only faced two hitters before he was forced to leave the game. Lumpinski went five and gave up one hit, zero runs, 4 SO, and one walk. Colin Mason hit a two-run HR in the fourth, then in the ninth, Andrew Tan hit a three-run shot to seal the 7-1 victory. On Saturday, the Bearcats banged out 17 hits and hit three home runs in a 12-3 win. UMBC will open the tournament facing UMass Lowell on Wednesday morning.

That’s because the River Hawks (15-15) took two of three from Albany (11-19) and in doing so, knocked the Great Danes from postseason play. On Thursday, Lowell got four solid innings from LJ Keevan who was returning to the rotation after suffering a hamstring injury in his start vs Maine two weeks ago. Brendan Williams and Ryan Towle did the job out of the pen despite some shaky defense from their mates. They took game one 5-4. Friday, the River Hawks could muster only two hits. But it would be enough to support Joshua Becker to win 3-2. UMass Lowell would score twice in the eighth without the benefit of a base hit to snap a 1-1 tie. Becker went the first seven and had a stat line of 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, and 4 SO. Matt Draper went the last two to earn his third save of the season. River Hawks win 3-2. On Saturday, give Albany credit. By the time the game started they already knew their fate. That’s because the Hartford game started in the morning and the result was in. Still, the Great Danes went out and played a heck of a ballgame to win their final game of the season 4-1. Six pitchers would combine on a three-hitter with Thomas Quinn (2-0) getting the win. Ryan Towle (3-6) took the loss. UMass Lowell will kick off the tournament on Wednesday morning against UMBC.

The final America East Player of the Week is Stony Brook’s, Evan Giordano. He hit .429 with an OPS of 1.714 in the series vs NJIT. He scored six runs and drove in eight more, including the game-winner on Saturday. This is his third honor this season. No one else has as many.

The America East Pitcher of the Week is Josh O’Neill of Stony Brook. The junior came out of the Seawolves pen and tossed 6.2 innings of scoreless baseball. He struck out six and more importantly, gave his team a chance to come back and win a game. This is his first weekly honor.

The America East Rookie of the Week is Binghamton catcher Evin Sullivan. In the road series win over UMBC, Sullivan hit .533 with a .563 on-base percentage. He scored four times and drove in four more, and hit a HR. This is his second consecutive weekly award.

We want to remind you there are still tickets available for the tournament that get underway on Wednesday with three games. Go to the Maine baseball page for all the information on how you can purchase tickets for what should be a great week of baseball in Orono, Maine.