The long wait is over for the University of Maine’s baseball team.
The team clinched its first America East Tournament championship since 2011 in a 6-1 win over defending champions, the Binghamton Bearcats.
For the second straight game, the Black Bears received a terrific performance from their starting pitcher, freshman righthander Gianni Gambardella, who threw eight scoreless innings while the Black Bears hit four homers.
The Black Bears, who went 3-0 in the tournament which was held at the Binghamton Bearcats Baseball Complex in Vestal, N.Y., improved to 32-19 on the season and will now advance to play in an NCAA Division I regional late next week.
The NCAA Tournament selection show is on Monday at noon. It will be aired on ESPN2.
Gambardella, who was chosen to the All-America East first team and All-Rookie team, allowed just three hits over his eight innings. He struck out two and walked two while throwing 101 pitches. He is now 6-3 on the season.
It was his longest outing of the season. He had gone seven in a win over the University of Maryland Baltimore County on May 7.
He shut down a Binghamton team that had scored 34 runs and pounded out 49 hits in its previous four tournament games.
Closer Justin Baeyens came on in the ninth and gave up a lead-off homer to Kevin Gsell but retired the next three hitters on a groundout and two strikeouts.
Sophomore lefty Caleb Leys had tossed eight innings of four-hit, one-run ball in Friday’s 3-1 win over the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
The Black Bears took a 1-0 lead when Jake Rainess walloped his 16th homer of the season to lead off the bottom of the first inning.
UMaine made it 2-0 in the second when Nick White doubled to right center, was sacrificed to third by Matt McElwain and scored on Ryan Turenne’s base hit to right.
America East Player of the Year Jeremiah Jenkins expanded the lead with his 20th homer of the season in the third inning, a solo shot to right field.
Alex Henderson came on in relief of Justin Rosner at the outset of the fourth inning and the Black Bears scored twice to make it 5-0 when Jake Marquez launched his first homer of the season, a two-run shot to left field.
Quinn McDaniel tacked on an insurance run off Tommy Snyder in the seventh with his 16th homer over the left field fence.
Gsell’s homer for the Bearcats was his eighth of the campaign.
White was the game’s only repeat hitter with a double and a single.
UMaine sixth-year head coach Nick Derba was at a loss for words after the game.
“And that’s a rarity for me,” said Derba, 37, who called Saturday’s win “very much a team effort.”
He praised tournament Most Valuable Player Gambardella, Leys and Baeyens for their superb pitching performances.
“This team simply went out and just played baseball. And that’s all they’ve done for 50-something games this season,” said Derba.
He said Leys’ outing was the best of his career. Gambardella was the epitome of efficiency and had outstanding stuff and Baeyens was “dominant.”
