The University of Maine’s baseball team would have liked to have reached the .500 mark on its overall record with a win over Albany in its season finale in Albany, New York, on Saturday.
But a game that could have been crucial for both teams turned into nothing more than an America East tournament tune-up for the Black Bears after they had swept the Great Danes 4-1 and 3-1 on Friday.
Albany won Saturday’s finale 6-1 as five Great Dane pitchers teamed up on a six-hitter and Shawn Blake homered, singled and drove in two runs.
Maine will be the third seed after finishing up at 10-10 in the conference and 24-26 overall. The Black Bears will take on No. 2 UMBC (14-10, 32-18) in Thursday’s 5 p.m. game at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts.
The second-place finish is the best in UMBC history.
Maine dropped two of three to the Retrievers in Baltimore on April 25-26.
Top seed Stony Brook (18-4-1, 31-14-1) will face No. 4 Hartford (10-12, 22-29) in the 1 p.m. opener at the four-team double-elimination tournament.
Defending two-time tourney champ Binghamton finished last and didn’t qualify.
Maine will enter the tourney with five wins in its last six league games.
“Our goal over the last two series was to win five out of six,” said Maine coach Steve Trimper. “The kids have played real well. I’m so proud of them. They’ve played real good baseball the last month. You have to give them a ton of credit.
“When you win series in conference play it’s very important, especially on the road,” Trimper added. “It isn’t always easy to do. You have to travel great distances and play on your opponents’ field.”
After winning Friday’s opener to sew up a tournament spot, Trimper was able to rest some regulars and use a lot of different players in games two and three and develop some depth for the tournament.
Reserve sophomore outfielder Jake Osborne and freshmen infielders Christian Garabedian and Alex Cabrera combined for seven hits in Friday’s second game.
“We hit a ton of balls hard this weekend, although a lot of them didn’t wind up as hits. We’re swinging the bats well, one through nine. And we got great pitching,” said Trimper who received quality starts from Justin Courtney and Scott Heath and solid relief performances from Charlie Butler and Logan Fullmer.
Jacob Gosselin-Deschenes pitched five impressive innings on Saturday before the Great Danes reached him for four sixth-inning runs to snap a 1-1 tie. Blake’s lead-off homer triggered the rally. Adam Mund had an RBI double and Albany received run-scoring singles from Brendan Behan and Eric Mueller.
Will Miller had three singles for Albany, which finished up 7-13 and 14-28. Blake and Mueller had two hits each. Blake had a sacrifice fly to go with his homer and single and Mueller had two singles.
Matt Gallup went five innings, allowing three hits and one run, before Andrew Jaurique pitched one scoreless inning to notch the win.
Brett Chappell had two singles for Maine and Brian Doran had an RBI double.