ORONO – University of Maine baseball coach Nick Derba knows the old adage that you don’t put the potential winning run on base intentionally.
But he decided to do just that in the ninth inning of his team’s America East game against UMass Lowell on Sunday afternoon.
With UMaine clinging to a 3-2 lead and Alex Luccini on third with one out after his lead-off double, Derba elected to intentionally walk the lefthanded hitting Carlos Martinez, who had homered and doubled in three at-bats earlier in the game.
But it worked out for Derba when redshirt-junior righthander and closer Sebastian Holt induced the right-handed hitting Rowan Masse to hit into a game-ending double play as UMaine triumphed to take two of three over the weekend.
UMaine is now 10-20 overall and 5-4 in America East while UMass Lowell is 12-18 and 4-5.
UMaine had beaten UMass Lowell 10-0 in eight innings (mercy rule) on Saturday after the River Hawks had rallied for an 8-5 victory on Friday.
“[Martinez] has consistently killed us ever since he showed up at Lowell,” explained Derba. “He could lose the baseball [homer] at any point. I’d rather lose to somebody else than him.”
Holt, who earned his America East-leading sixth save, said he fully agreed with Derba’s decision.
“[Martinez] had been great all weekend,” said Holt. “I knew I could get us a ground ball and our defense would make a play.”
Holt said he felt he could “beat [Masse] inside with a fastball in on the hands. I tried to get a jam shot and that’s what ended up happening.”
Masse’s grounder went to shortstop Chris Bear who stepped on second and threw to first to end the game.
UMass Lowell head coach Nick Barese said he would have done the same thing as Derba.
“I thought about putting something on,” said Barese, referring to a steal, hit-and-run or squeeze bunt. “I just didn’t think we were going to hit into a double play.”
Martinez had gone 5-for-11 in the series with a homer and a double and has gone 10-for-28 in his career (.357) against UMaine with a homer, three doubles and eight runs batted in.
Martinez had opened the scoring with his fifth homer of the year in the second inning, a solo shot to right field.
UMaine took the lead for good with three runs in the fourth inning, all coming after two were out.
Brody Rasmussen started the rally with a one-out, opposite-field double to right.
He went to third on a groundout and scored when fellow junior Drew Reynolds hooked a sharp single to right center.
Payton Whitehead singled before lefthanded-hitting freshman third baseman Evan Menzel delivered both of them with a long double down the right field line off a low, inside Kevin Zarnoch Jr. change-up.
“I was looking for [a pitch] to drive,” said Menzel. “I had been struggling a little bit all weekend.
They had been killing me with change-ups all day. I was just trying to look down, stay through it and drive the gap.”
“That was a good at-bat for [Menzel],” said Barese.
“(Menzell’s) having a great season. He’s also been making all the plays behind me,” said junior righthander Gianni Gambardella, who picked up the win with seven innings of three-hit, two-run ball with seven strikeouts and two walks. He is now 2-2.
“All my pitches were working and I was able to throw all of them in any count,” said Gambardella referring to his fastball, curve and change-up. “And having the guys behind me make all the plays was huge.
“It was a big series win for us,” said Gambardella.
Holt allowed just the double to Luccini and the intentional walk over two innings.
“They pitched the ball really well and they had the one inning when they had some clutch hits. They had the two-out double that scored two runs for them and we just couldn’t cash in,” said Barese. “We should have had more than four hits today but we weren’t putting together very good at-bats. Our pitching staff did a good job.
Brandon Fish also pulled a solo homer to right in the sixth for UML to make it 3-2. It was his second of the season.
Menzel and Reynolds each had a double and single for UMaine, which had seven hits.
Menzel went 5-for-10 in the series with three RBIs and raised his average to .372.
On Saturday, junior lefty Caleb Leys tossed seven innings of seven-hit, shutout baseball with nine strikeouts and two walks to earn his second win in three decisions.
He has now struck out 21 in 14 innings over his last two starts and allowed just two earned runs.
The Black Bears backed him with a 15-hit attack.
Myles Sargent had two doubles and a single and Dean O’Neill, Rasmussen, Whitehead and Zach Martin had two hits apiece. O’Neill and Whitehead each drove in two runs and Sargent, Rasmussen and Martin knocked in one each.
Whitehead and Martin each had a double.
There were no repeat hitters for UMass Lowell.
On Friday, the River Hawks rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie it with two runs in the sixth on a Conor Kelly double, a Luccini triple and a Fish single and took the lead for good with three in the seventh on Bryaden Cali’s run-scoring fielder’s choice and RBI singles by Fish and Martinez.
Alfred Mucciarone went seven innings to pick up his first win in three decisions, allowing four runs on 10 hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
Nick DiRito notched his fourth save.
Kelly and Scott Donahue had a double and single apiece for UM and Fish and Martinez had two singles apiece. Fish had two RBIs.
O’Neill had three singles for UMaine and Rasmussen, Menzel and Martin had two singles each. Martin drove in two runs.
UMaine will host Merrimack in a non-conference game on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and UMass Lowell will visit Boston College on Tuesday at 4.
