The University of Maine baseball team closed out its season Friday with an 11-2 loss to Hartford in the America East tournament.
Coach Steve Trimper’s Black Bears made a strong stretch run to qualify for the tourney, but they did not pitch effectively or produce enough offense this spring to be a legitimate title contender.
UMaine (24-28) lost two straight postseason games for the second year in a row and had a 21-28 mark against Division I opponents.
The Bears relied heavily on their six seniors, led by pitcher-outfielder Scott Heath of Westbrook, third baseman Luke Morrill of South Thomaston, outfielders Sam Balzano of Portland, Brian Doran and Steven Adam, and pitcher Jacob Gosselin-Deschenses.
That crew performed well over the course of the season, but UMaine was not able to develop much depth in its pitching staff, did not score enough runs consistently and had issues defensively.
Heath (6-4, 4.21 earned run average) was the wins leader on a staff that was limited. Freshman right-hander Justin Courtney of Bangor (5-6, team-best 3.24 ERA) established himself as a front-line performer and earned all-conference second-team and all-rookie honors.
Gosselin-Deschesnes (3-3, 3.53) also made a solid midseason transition to the starting rotation, but neither junior Jake Marks (2-5, 8.55) or sophomore Jeff Gelinas of Saco (3-1, 5.51) was able to provide any consistency.
The bullpen was anchored by a breakout season from junior All-AE second-teamer Logan Fullmer (1-1, 3.75, 4 saves), while classmate Charlie Butler (3-5, 4.80, 4 saves) had an up-and-down campaign. Freshman Connor Johnson (0-1, 4.50) showed promise in limited innings.
The Bears registered with a 4.84 overall team ERA, but lowered it to 3.82 in America East play.
UMaine was an average offensive team in spite of its veteran presence in the lineup. Morrill claimed a spot on the all-league first team, batting a team-best .367 with 2 home runs and 29 runs batted in.
Transfer Brett Chappell, a junior infielder, posted a team-high 38 RBI and batted .316 with two homers. Heath, a first-team choice as a utility player, hit .308 with a team-leading six homers and 29 RBI.
Balzano (.308, 19 RBI, 9 stolen bases), junior first baseman Brenden Geary (.280, 3 HR, 20 RBI), Doran (.267, 3 HR, 29 RBI, 9 SB), junior catcher Kevin Stypulkowski (.254, 2 HR, 26 RBI) and junior infielder Shane Bussey (.250, 17 RBI) made up the rest of the everyday lineup.
The Black Bears averaged 5.3 runs per game overall, but put up only 4.1 per contest in conference play.
Other key contributors included Adam (.221, 8 RBI), freshmen infielders Christian Garabedian (.247, 5 RBI), Alex Cabrera (.304, 2 RBI) and Danny Diaz (.203, 2 HR, 12 RBI).
UMaine’s defense was spotty in the infield, where four of the five players were first-time, full-time starters. Chappell and Bussey manned shortstop and second base, but between them committed 32 errors.
Morrill had 11 errors for the Bears, who turned only 28 double plays. They finished with 81 errors in 52 games for a .958 fielding percentage.
Looking ahead to 2016, UMaine will again have plenty of question marks and positions to fill.
Chappell and Bussey return in the middle, while Geary is a good glove man at first. Stypulkowski and senior Jon Salcedo will give the Bears depth behind the plate. Diaz and Garabedian are candidates to step in at third base, while Cabrera and Bobby Brennan are in the infield mix.
The only returning outfielders with any experience are juniors Jake Osborne and Lou Della Fera.
On the mound, UMaine will have Courtney, Fullmer and Butler as the nucleus, while Gelinas, Marks and a handful of others will try to step up and establish themselves.
Trimper is excited about the addition of talented redshirt freshman pitcher Chris Murphy of Billerica, Massachusetts, who sat out this season after undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery, along with transfer Tyler Schwanz, an outfielder and pitcher.
Among the highly touted incoming freshmen expected to make immediate bids for playing time are shortstop Danny Casals, infielder/pitcher Andrew Noviello and infielder Jeremy Pena. Other recruits include OF/1B Colin Ridley, 3B/RHP Zach Quintal of Eliot, RHP Nick Silva, the nephew of New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, and 3B/RHP Buddy Dewaine.
With four positional starters and two of top pitchers graduating, the Black Bears will face significant challenges trying to re-establish themselves as championship contenders next year.
The Black Bears will need to receive significant improvement from the returnees and get immediate contributions from a handful of newcomers.