Justin Courtney of Bangor pitched five innings of three-hit ball and did not surrender an earned run as the University of Maine baseball team opened its season with a 4-3 victory over the ACC’s Clemson Tigers on Friday at Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.
The sophomore right-hander struck out eight and walked one before giving way to three teammates, who limited the Tigers to one run and one hit the rest of the way.
Lefty Connor Johnson pitched a scoreless sixth inning to pick up the win, before Charlie Butler worked two shutout innings and Logan Fullmer earned the save by pitching the ninth.
Brett Chappell posted two hits to lead the UMaine offense, including a sun-aided RBI triple to right-center in the seventh that plated Jeremy Pena with the eventual winning run. Pena reached with a double to left.
Jon Salcedo stroked a run-scoring single in the sixth for the Black Bears to score Kevin Stypulkowski, who smacked a one-out double down the third-base line and advanced to third on Brenden Geary’s single.
Maine’s win ruined the debut of new Clemson head coach Monte Lee, who replaced Jack Leggett, a former UMaine baseball and football standout.
Clemson took advantage of an error to score two runs in the first inning, but Maine answered with two runs in the third inning.
Caleb Kerbs reached on an infield single to short, and Danny Casals followed with a walk before each runner moved up a base on a Pena sacrifice. Tyler Schwanz then reached on an infield error to score Kerbs, and Chappell’s groundout to second plated Casals.
Weston Wilson singled twice and drove in a run for Clemson, and Reed Rohlman doubled and had an RBI.
The two teams play again at 2 p.m. Saturday and then finish the three-game series at 1 p.m. Sunday.