America East Baseball News & Notes: Maine and NJIT Take Series

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As Week 3 of the college baseball season gets underway, we look back at Week 2 with favorable news from the America East Conference. Two teams, the Maine Black Bears and the NJIT Highlanders, took series wins last weekend. Bryant University won a game over the University of Central Florida last Sunday. Here is a brief look at how Week 2 went in the league.

NJIT visited Sam Houston last weekend and they brought their bats with them as they scored 24 runs in the three-game series. In game one last Friday, three-hit games by the top two hitters in the Highlanders lineup, Catcher Cole Campbell (3-for-5, RS, RBI) and Austin Francis (3-for-5, 2 RS, 2 RBI), got things going for them. The big hit of this game was a three-run HR from SS Ray Ortiz in the ninth as part of a four-run inning. Holden deJong went six innings of four-hit, one-run baseball with four walks and seven strikeouts to get win #1 on the year. Game 2 was settled by a five-run ninth inning for the Highlanders. CF Ty Salle had a 4-for-4 day with three runs scored and two RBI. One of his hits was an RBI triple in the 3rd. Out of the bullpen, Eddie Werse got the win with 3.1 IP giving up one hit, with a walk and three strikeouts. On Sunday, NJIT fell 6-3 to Sam Houston.

Maine took two of three from The Citadel winning the first two games of the weekend. Colin Fitzgerald went the first five allowing three hits and an earned run. Out of the pen, Luc Lavigueur got the save with four innings of three-hit one-run pitching. 3rd baseman Payton Whitehead hit a two-run HR in the 5th for the Black Bears to help get the win. On Saturday, the good pitching continued for Maine as four hurlers combined on a seven-hitter with two earned runs allowed. Sebastian Holt (1-1) got the win with 2.2 IP, one hit zero runs, and struck out two batters. Maine won the game 6-2. On Sunday, The Citadel took the final game by a 10-3 score.

Bryant played the only Power-4 school on their schedule in Central Florida last weekend. On Friday, they had a chance to take game one. However, the bullpen gave up a late lead by allowing three runs in the ninth which gave UCF a walkoff 7-6 win. On Saturday, a good pitching duel between the two teams was won by the Knights 4-2. Out of the UCF pen came Kris Sosnowski to throw four shutout innings allowing two hits and an unearned run. The Bulldogs got two-hit games from CF Gavin Greger and SS Justin Hackett. On Sunday, Bryant avoided the sweep with a 5-3 victory. They would score single runs in five of their nine at-bats. Liam Chamberlain, the fifth pitcher used by Bryant, picked up the win with a shutdown ninth inning.

After a weekend that saw UMBC lose three games to Stenson, Notre Dame, and Iowa, they picked up their first win earlier this week over Towson University 5-4 on Wednesday afternoon. A four-run second inning did the trick. RBI hits from catcher Derek Paris and RF Nico Ong got things off to a good start. Six pitchers allowed five hits and four runs. Emmett Tolis got the win his first with 2.2 IP of no-hit run pitching and struck out five. Nick Remy got his first save with a scoreless inning

Brandyn Durand of Bryant was last week’s America East Player of the Week. He hit .600 and slugged 1.000 with four RS, and four RBI in the weekend series with UCF. The America East Pitcher of the Week is Binghamton Brady Bouchard who earned his first collegiate win with six innings of scoreless pitching vs Elon in a 7-0 Bearcats win. He allowed four hits, three of them singles, with two strikeouts and one walk. He never allowed a runner to reach third base.

Next week we will see how Week 3 goes in the America East Conference.