ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s softball team took care of business in impressive fashion on Saturday at Kessock Field.
The Black Bears parlayed a pair of productive first-inning rallies and quality pitching performances from junior lefthander Erin Bogdanovich and sophomore righty Annie Kennedy into a 6-0, 13-0 sweep of their America East doubleheader with UMass Lowell.
The second game was called after 4 ½ innings due to the eight-run mercy rule.
Maine improved to 15-13 overall, 4-1 in America East, while the River Hawks fell to 5-29 and 0-9.
UMass Lowell has lost seven straight and has been shutout four straight times including Friday’s 8-0 loss to Maine in which it was no-hit by Molly Flowers over 4 ½ innings.
Maine scored five runs in the first inning of the opener and six in the second game to stake Bogdanovich and Kennedy to healthy leads.
“It was a great team effort. Everybody swung the bat well and we moved runners when we needed to,” said senior catcher Janelle Bouchard from Kennebunk, who had a pair of hits in each game including a two-run homer in the nightcap.
“It was huge for us to put up runs in the first inning. It sets the tone and makes our pitchers more comfortable,” said sophomore first baseman Kristen Niland, who hit a three-run double in the first inning of the second game and finished the game with two hits and five runs batted in.
“Maine was very aggressive at the plate. They were all able to hit, one-through-nine in the order, and they hit a lot of line drives into the gaps,” said UMass Lowell coach Danielle Henderson.
In the nightcap, Erika Leonard triggered the first-inning rally by poking an 0-2 pitch into right center field for a base hit.
She stole second and scored on Rachel Carlson’s double over left fielder Sydney Barker’s head. Two outs later, Rachel Harvey singled and walks to Felicia Lennon and Maddie Decker forced in a run.
Niland took the first two pitches for balls and Henderson came out to the mound to talk to pitcher Lauren Ramirez. The lefthanded-hitting Niland then drilled the next pitch into the left center field gap to clear the bases.
“The bases were loaded so I knew I just needed to put the ball in the outfield and be aggressive with the first [good pitch] I saw. We needed to score runs,” said Niland. “I like to go the opposite way and she threw me a fastball on the outside corner. That’s where I like it.”
Sarah Coyne delivered Niland with a looping single into center.
Maine put the game away with five more runs in the second with Carlson’s lead-off triple and Bouchard’s two-run opposite-field homer to right. It was Bouchard’s second homer of the season.
Kennedy pitched five innings of two-hit baseball, striking out six and not walking anyone, to improve to 4-3. She threw 76 pitches, 54 for strikes.
“It’s always good when your team puts up 13 runs,” said Kennedy. “Mentally, I just tried to think it was a 0-0 game. I felt pretty comfortable out there. I threw a lot of curveballs.”
Harvey paced Maine’s season-high 17-hit attack with three singles and an RBI. Bouchard, Leonard, Carlson, Decker, Niland and Coyne all had two hits. Decker and Bouchard had two RBIs each to complement Niland’s five while Carlson and Coyne had one each.
Barker and Kaysee Talcik singled for UML.
In the opener, Leonard led off the first by being hit by a pitch, she stole second and third and scored on Bouchard’s sharp line-drive single to center.
Alyssa Derrick’s base hit and a walk loaded the bases before Lennon launched a three-run double over center fielder Samantha McQueen’s head off a 2-2 pitch delivered by Talcik.
“I had two strikes so I was looking to put the ball in play and hit it up the middle. I wanted to keep my hands inside the ball. It was an inside pitch and I kind of turned on it,” said Lennon.
Maddie Moore singled her in.
Leonard’s single, two walks and an infield throwing error produced a second-inning run but Sydney Walsh, who had replaced Talcik with one out in the inning, went on to pitch 4 ⅔ innings of excellent two-hit, shutout relief.
Bogdanovich, now 3-4, allowed four singles over seven innings with three strikeouts and one walk. She threw 106 pitches, 71 for strikes.
“I tried to keep the ball away from the middle of the plate. I didn’t want to give them anything good to hit,” said Bogdanovich, who featured a fastball and a drop and also mixed in changeups and rise balls.
“She had good mound presence and she attacked the [strike] zone,” said Maine coach Mike Coutts.
Bouchard was the game’s only repeat hitter with a double to go with her single.
Lennon and UML’s Alisha Welch had doubles.