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America East Baseball News & Notes: Conference Play Has Begun

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The race to the America East Conference Baseball Tournament has begun. The Maine Black Bears and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County kicked things off last weekend. Meanwhile, the rest of the league continued with their non-league play. This weekend, more teams jump into conference play, a short season with only 24 league games. So getting off to a good start is a priority for everybody. Let’s look at how last week went.

The Maine Black Bears (7-10, 3-0) have won four in a row. Last weekend they got league play off on the right track by sweeping a series from UMBC (7-9, 0-3). Maine was able to win two one-run games sandwiched between a blowout win. On Friday, a pitching duel took place between Maine’s Colin Fitzgerald who went seven shutout innings, and Luke Johnson who went eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts. The game was decided by the long ball in the ninth. 2B Quinn McDaniels hit a two-run HR to left field off of reliever Sam Daniels (0-1) to give Maine a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the ninth, UMBC got a solo HR from Leewood Molessa to left-center on a 3-2 pitch by closer Justin Baeyens to make it a 2-1 game. However, UMBC could not push the tying run across and lost the well-played game 2-1. Caleb Leys got the win (1-0), and the save went to Baeyers his first. The loss went to Daniels.

On Saturday a doubleheader was played and the Black Bears swept the twin bill. In game one, Maine hit five HRs en route to a 15-7 win. Gianni Gambardella picked up his third win of the season. Game two saw Maine win 8-7 as Noah Lewis evened his record at 1-1 by going seven allowing five hits and three earned runs. He would have to sweat out a four-run eighth by the Retrievers against the Black Bear bullpen before getting the win. Baeyens recorded his second save of the weekend, and third of the year to complete the sweep.

On Tuesday, UMBC got back on the winning track with a 6-5 win over Coppin State. 1B Leewood Molessa had a big day with a 3-for-4 day with two runs scored and four RBI. His three-run HR in the first got UMBC off to a great start. CF Justin Taylor chipped in with three hits as well. The bullpen would get the job done as Daniels was the winner (1-1) with Nico Felber going three innings to get save number one on the year. Molessa is off to a hot start with the bat. He is seventh in batting with a .346 average, tied for the lead in doubles with seven, and in RBI with 24.

Both Binghamton and Bryant also won their series last weekend. Bryant (7-8) took two of three from Brown University. On Friday the Bulldogs won 10-1 behind the pitching of Chase Jeter (1-1) who went seven, struck out seven, and allowed four hits. At the plate, RF Derek Smith (3-for-5, 3 RBI, 1 RS) had two XBH on the day His three-run HR in the eighth finished the scoring for Bryant. 1B Carmine Petosa also had a three-hit, two-RBI game. Game two saw the Bulldogs win 9-6, an eight-hit attack backed the starting effort of Ken Turner (1-1) who went seven innings, giving up seven hits, and four earned runs. Brett Wichrowski went the final four innings to get the save, his first of the year. Bryant would lose the final game 11-3.

The defending champs the Binghamton Bearcats (8-9) swept a series from Lafayette scoring 23 runs in the three games series. A three-run eighth won game one for the Bearcats 4-1. The bullpen got credit with John Lumpinski getting the win (2 IP, 1 H), and Jack Collins with the save (1 IP, 1BB,1SO). On Saturday, Binghamton took two, winning game one on a suicide squeeze bunt by PH Logan Haskell that scored catcher Kevin Reilly with the winning run. Tommy Snyder went two innings of one-hit baseball to get the win. He is 1-0. In game two the bats came alive with a 17-hit attack led by 3B Devan Bada (3-for-4, 2 RS, 2 RBI) and RF Tommy Reifler (4-for-6, 3 RBI, 2 RS). On the mound, Ryan Bryggman (2-2) was the beneficiary of the run support. He went 5.2 innings, gave up seven hits, and five earned runs. The Bearcats dropped a mid-week game to Penn State 15-1 on Tuesday. Binghamton leads the league in hitting with a .299 BA. Reifler leads the league with a .435 average. The team is second in pitching with a 6,12 ERA, and Gabe Driscoll leads with a 2-0 record and a 1.60 ERA.

UAlbany picked up a nice win over Maryland while UMass Lowell stopped a seven-game slide with a win over Delaware on Sunday. The River Hawks game on Wednesday vs Holy Cross has been called off because of wet grounds in Lowell. Tommy Reifler was named America East Player of the Week. He went 10-for-14 (.714) in the 3-game sweep of Lafayette. He had at least three hits in all three games collecting three doubles and 3 runs batted in. Colin Fitzgerald of Maine is the America East Pitcher of the Week. He got a no-decision in Friday’s game despite the seven innings of one hit, seven strikeouts, and two walk pitching. Dylan Banner of UAlbany was the America East Rookie of the Week. Out of the Great Danes’ pen, he threw three innings of shutout baseball allowing three hits, and striking out three to help UAlbany get their win over Maryland.

Next week we will catch up on more conference baseball, including the re-match of last May’s tournament final. Binghamton hosts Lowell.

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