ORONO, Maine — A.J. Bazdanes pitched 6 1/3 strong innings Saturday afternoon, helping the University of Maine win the second game 5-1 and salvage a split of their nonleague doubleheader against Lehigh University.
The Mountain Hawks from Bethlehem, Pa., won Saturday’s opener 4-2.
UMaine coach Steve Trimper liked how his team responded to a subpar opening-game effort at the plate. The Black Bears played errorless defense, receiving some gems from shortstop Tony Patane and second baseman Mike Fransoso.
“We won that game because we played defense,” Trimper said. “We made routine plays, but we also made the play that is tough to make.”
In Saturday’s second game at chilly Mahaney Diamond, Bazdanes held Lehigh at bay as UMaine snapped a seven-game losing streak.
The sophomore righthander (2-4) allowed six hits and one run with four strikeouts and four walks.
“I felt just fantastic. It was a good day,” Bazdanes said. “I threw a lot of fastballs. Basically you’ve got to have a fastball in order to pitch. That’s what made me successful today.”
Senior lefthander Barry Keiffer allowed only one hit and struck out two in 2ª innings of relief.
UMaine scored all the runs it would need in the bottom of the second inning against losing pitcher Kent Corey (0-4). Freshman Tyler Patzalek chopped an infield single toward the middle.
Taylor Lewis followed, roping a sinking line-drive single to right field. The ball got past right fielder Andy Russell, allowing both runs to score.
The Bears tallied two runs in the third inning on RBI singles by Patzalek and Lewis, then added a run in the fifth on a single by Joe Mercurio and Joey Martin’s opposite-field double to left-center.
“The second game, we played good defense and we threw strikes,” said Martin, a junior co-captain from Portland. “I said that [Friday], any time we do that, we’ll have a good chance to win.”
Lewis finished with three singles, while Martin also added a single.
Logan Winchester singled twice for Lehigh (6-11), which had a three-game winning streak halted.
The Mountain Hawks scored their only run in the third on Chad Warga’s double and a Kevin Mihalik single.
In the first game, senior righthander Andrew Berger limited UMaine to five hits, leading Lehigh to victory.
Berger (1-0) struck out nine, hit two batters but did not walk anybody in a solid, complete-game performance in the scheduled seven-inning game.
“The first game, I don’t know if we came out flat, but we weren’t having great at-bats,” Martin said. “We were swinging at bad pitches and not swinging at good pitches. [Berger] was mixing his fastball in and out and he had a pretty good curveball.”
The Mountain Hawks scored single runs in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Billy Goldman sparked the offense with a double and two singles, while Jim McConlogue posted two singles.
The Bears were paced offensively by Fransoso, who doubled and singled with an RBI. Martin also provided a run-scoring single for UMaine.
Freshman righty Steve Perakslis (1-3) suffered the loss despite a good outing. He scattered seven hits, striking out three and walking three.
However, Trimper was unhappy with UMaine’s approaches at the plate and its ability to deal with off-speed pitches.
“I think their kid [Berger] did a good job, not an awesome job, throwing the ball over the plate,” Trimper said. “He was down and he threw strikes. He didn’t walk anybody. We did an extremely poor job of getting it to hitter’s counts.”
Lehigh grabbed a 1-0 lead in the fourth as Goldman led off with a double and eventually scored on a wild pitch. The visitors made it 2-0 in the fifth on Winchester’s single, a sacrifice bunt by Brendan Pifer and a two-out single off the bat of Brendan McGaheran.
The Mountain Hawks made it 3-0 in the sixth when Russell drilled a leadoff home run over the fence in right field.
The Bears came to life in the bottom of the inning, scoring two runs. Patane sparked the rally with a single to left-center and advanced on an errant pickoff throw by Berger. Fransoso followed with a line-drive, opposite-field double to left-center.
Fransoso rode home on a one-out, ground-ball single to right by Martin. However, the rally was cut short when Martin took off for second base on an attempted steal but was doubled off when Ian Leisenheimer lined out to third base.
Lehigh added an insurance tally in the seventh against reliever Justin Latta, who hit two batters and walked another.
UMaine threatened in the seventh when Patzalek lined a one-out single and Kyle Stilphen was hit by a pitch, but Berger struck out Myckie Lugbauer and Patane to close out the victory.