ORONO – The University of Maine’s baseball team was in a must-win situation in the third game of its America East series if it was going to have a realistic chance of earning a spot in the conference tournament in two weeks.
UMaine had lost the previous two games on Friday (10-4) and Saturday (15-8) and a loss on Sunday to newly crowned regular season champion Bryant University (R.I.) would have forced the Black Bears to sweep a three-game series from visiting Albany next week, a feat they haven’t accomplished all season long.
Sophomore righthander Luc Lavigueur tossed 6 ⅔ innings of 10-hit, three-run ball (two earned) and freshman Jason Krieger notched two innings of two-hit, two-run (one earned) relief to lead the Black Bears to a 7-5 victory.
UMaine is now 7-13 in the conference and trails 8-12 Albany by one game in the battle for the sixth and last playoff spot. If UMaine wins two of three, the teams would finish with 9-14 records but UMaine would win the second tiebreaker by going 2-4 against the top team in the league (Bryant) while Albany lost all three of its games against Bryant.
The first tie-breaker is head-to-head but that would be a wash because they would be 3-3 against each other on the season since Albany took two of three in Albany on the last weekend of March.
Sunday’s game turned bizarre in the ninth inning when the left side of the Black Bear infield made throwing errors on three consecutive one-out grounders after Brandyn Durand belted a one-out homer. Freshman shortstop Jonathan Gonzalez had two errors and senior third baseman Jake Marquez had the other.
With the score 7-5 and runners on first and third, Krieger got a called third strike on Justin Hackett and induced an inning-ending grounder to second by Shea Grady to end the game.
“That stuff happens,” Krieger said about the three errors. “I still had faith in my guys. I just kept pounding the fastball away [on the outside corner] and getting ground balls. It worked out.”
Krieger, who struck out one and didn’t walk anybody, said he used a “backdoor slider” to get the called third strike on Hackett.
“That’s a compliment to (Krieger),” Bryant coach Ryan Klosterman said. “He did a good job. Some adversity thrown at him right there and he just kept coming. He got the big strikeout late for the second out and kept attacking the zone.
Lavigueur allowed an unearned run in the first inning and a run in the second before settling down and pitching four scoreless innings.
He came out with two outs and a runner on second in the seventh and was replaced by 2023 first team All-America East pitcher Gianni Gambardella, who was making his first appearance since April 7 due to tendinitis.
Matt Smith greeted him with what appeared to be an inning-ending line drive to the left of Gonzalez but the ball went off the freshman shortstop’s glove. It scored Carmine Petosa from second.
Jackson Phinney followed with a base hit but Gambardella induced a fly ball to left to end the threat.
Lavigueur, who had picked up the win in a 1-0 triumph at Bryant in March, struck out seven and walked one against his home-staters.
It’s always nice to beat Bryant, he said.
“I know a lot of their guys. It’s very competitive,” Lavigueur said.
A throwing error by second baseman Jeph Hadson-Taylor allowed a first inning run to score and Hackett singled home the second-inning run for Bryant.
“This is the first time I can say the pitching staff won a game,” UMaine head coach Nick Derba said. “They didn’t get any help, defensively. I’ve never seen three consecutive errors in a high school game.”
But Gonzalez tied it by lining a two-run single to left center in the bottom of the second and UMaine broke the game open with five runs in the sixth.
Dean O’Neill walked and Zach Martin singled to right before both runners moved up on a ground-out.
A perfectly placed squeeze bunt by Hadson-Taylor scored O’Neill and Hadson Taylor beat the throw to first for a base hit. Colin Plante drew a walk in a 14-pitch at-bat to load the bases off M.T. Morrissey and Colby College transfer Jack Pletter came on in relief.
Jeremiah Jenkins walked to force in a run, Connor Goodman ripped an RBI single to left and Nick White rifled a two-run double to left center.
White returned to the lineup this weekend for the first time in nearly a month after dislocating his left shoulder for the second time this season.
“I just wanted to get the job done and put a good swing on a pitch I could handle,” said White.
Martin and Goodman each had two two singles for UMaine, which is 11-35 overall.
Chris Einemann had three singles for Bryant (31-17, 16-5). Zac Zyons, Petosa, Smith and Hackett had two hits each.
Petosa extended his school-record on-base streak to 51 games and Marquez had a base hit to extend his to 32.
On Saturday, Petosa had three hits including a homer and Durand and Einemann each walloped two-run homers. Zyons had a pair of hits.
White drove in seven runs for UMaine with a grand slam, a two-run single and a solo homer. Jenkins doubled and singled and Hadson-Taylor had two hits.
On Friday, Phinney’s three-run homer and Zyons’ two-run double highlighted a six-run sixth inning that erased a 3-1 deficit and led the Bulldogs to the win.
Gavin Noriega had a homer and two singles, Smith singled three times and Gavin Greger had two hits.
Marquez had a double and two singles for UMaine and Plante, Jenkins, Goodman and Gonzales had two singles each.