America East Baseball Championship
No. 3 MAINE vs. No. 2 MARYLAND BALTIMORE COUNTY
Time, site: Thursday, 5 p.m., LeLacheur Park, Lowell, Massachusetts
Records: Maine 24-26, UMBC 32-18
Series, last meeting: Maine leads 40-9, UMBC 6-3 on 4/26/15
Key players: Maine — 3B Luke Morrill (.357, 2 home runs, 28 runs batted in), CF Sam Balzano (.316, 19 RBI, 8 stolen bases), 2B Brett Chappell (.321, 2 HR, 36 RBI), LF Scott Heath (.301, 6 HR, 29 RBI), 1B Brenden Geary (.283, 3 HR, 19 RBI); UMBC — 2B Vince Corbi (.305, 1 HR, 35 RBI, 13 SB), CF Andrew Casali (.303, 2 HR, 37 RBI, 11 SB), 1B Anthony Gatto (.297, 4 HR, 22 RBI, 28 RBI), C Hunter Dolshun (.298, 1 HR, 28 RBI)
Pitching matchups: Maine — RH Justin Courtney (5-5, 2.83 earned run average, 37 strikeouts); UMBC — RH Matt Chanin (5-2, 1.85, 38 K)
Game notes: The Black Bears are hoping to ride a strong stretch run to an America East title. UMaine won nine of its last 13 contests to gain the No. 3 seed in the four-team, double-elimination tournament. The Bears encounter the upstart Retrievers, who claimed the No. 2 seed. UMBC has won 16 of its last 19 games. A key dynamic in this one will be the ability of UMaine pitchers to keep the speedy Retrievers off the bases and for strong-armed catcher Jon Salcedo to gun them down if they do reach safely. UMBC ranks second in pitching in AE games with a 3.56 team ERA. The Retrievers are third in batting at .280. UMaine is last in the league in batting (.249) and fielding (.959) and LeLacheur’s natural surface isn’t likely to help that dynamic. The Bears’ pitching staff ranked third at 3.82. UMBC took two of three in the regular-season series at Baltimore.