ORONO, Maine — Justin Courtney couldn’t remember the last time he pitched in relief.
The former Bangor High School ace likely won’t forget the first time he came out of the bullpen for the University of Maine.
The freshman right-hander made his Mahaney Diamond debut with 3⅔ strong innings of relief on Sunday afternoon to help the Black Bears earn a 4-3 baseball victory over the University at Albany in the first game of an America East doubleheader.
“It feels great to just get a win,” Courtney said. “I’ve been searching for it for a while and to do it in our home opener, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
In the second game, the Great Danes overcame 16 walks by their pitchers to pull out a 9-5 win in 10 innings. UMaine left 14 runners on base.
“We had huge chances. We left a lot of guys on the base at the end there,” said UMaine head coach Steve Trimper.
“We just didn’t get the big hit when we needed it.”
Monday’s series finale against Albany was canceled because of concerns about a cold, windy, rainy forecast.
In the opener Courtney (1-4), a starter in his first five collegiate outings, held the Great Danes in check. He allowed four singles and one run, striking out three and walking one after replacing starter Jake Marks.
Marks, who gave up two runs in the first, lasted only 4⅓ innings after giving up five hits and the two runs with four strikeouts and three walks.
“It was really all mental for me,” Courtney said of being a reliever. “Preparing the same way, trying to keep everything the same, was really key for me because I really hadn’t done it before.”
Junior righty Charlie Butler picked up his fourth save for UMaine (9-15, 1-2 AE) with a scoreless ninth inning that included a game-ending double-play grounder.
Brett Chappell had two hits for UMaine, including a game-tying RBI double during a three-run seventh. Sam Balzano of Portland and Bobby Brennan each singled twice.
The Black Bears received a clutch RBI single in the seventh from Scott Heath of Westbrook. Kevin Stypulkowski and Brenden Geary hit sacrifice flies.
Craig Lepre collected three singles to pace Albany (5-8, 1-1 AE), while Trevor DeMerritt and Alex Lushkevich hit two singles each. Matt Hinchey lined a two-run double in the first inning for the Great Danes behind relief loser Terry Dugdale (0-1).
In the second game, Eric Mueller struck out three times for Albany, but bookended those at-bats with a two-run double in the first inning and the game-winning three-run triple in the 10th.
UMaine could not capitalize on numerous scoring chances with all the walks and managed only six hits.
Joey Moore (1-0) picked up the win in relief, surrendering only three hits and a run in 5⅓ innings. He walked six and struck out two.
Shawn Blake (double) and DeMerritt each had two hits each for Albany. Adam Mund stroked a two-run double in the third and Matt Hinchy had an RBI single in the first.
Great Danes starter Stephen Woods, a sixth-round draft choice of the Tampa Bay Rays, allowed only one hit in 4⅓ innings and struck out five. He walked nine.
Heath jumpstarted the UMaine offense in the fifth when he cranked a two-run homer to right field to cut the deficit to 5-3.
“I got a mistake pitch, a fastball over the plate when I was down in the count, and I just put a good swing on it,” Heath said.
The Bears added a run later in the inning after Stypulkowski walked and Christian Garabedian doubled to right-center.
UMaine tied it in the sixth on two-out walks to Chappell and Geary and Stypulkowski’s double to right, but the Bears would not score again.
“We had a ton of chances, especially later on in the game,” Heath said. “We put ourselves in good positions to score in extra innings and we just didn’t come through with the one hit.”
Logan Fullmer baffled the Great Danes with 5⅓ innings of one-hit, shutout relief with six strikeouts and no walks. However, the visitors mounted the winning rally in the 10th against Butler (1-2), who surrendered four runs on three hits and two walks.
Lepre singled to left, DeMerritt laid down a bunt single and both moved up on Hinchy’s sacrifice bunt. After Blake was walked intentionally, Mueller ripped a 1-1 pitch inside the bag at third to clear the bases.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it at the end. We gave up a big, crooked number in that last inning,” Trimper said.
UMaine returns to action Friday at 4 p.m. when it opens a three-game conference series against Stony Brook.