Freshmen Eddie Emerson of Lewiston and Nick Silva combined on a four-hitter on Tuesday evening, leading the University of Maine to a 1-0 baseball victory over the University of Rhode Island in a doubleheader at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
The Rams scored twice in the 10th inning to pull out a 6-4 win in the first game.
In the nightcap, coach Steve Trimper’s Black Bears (12-27) needed only one run to support the mound efforts of Emerson and Silva.
The left-handed Emerson (1-0), a former Lewiston High School standout, picked up his first collegiate win. He worked the first four innings, allowing only two hits while striking out five and walking two.
Silva, a righty, gave up two hits and fanned two in his three-inning stint to earn his first save as a Black Bear.
They outdueled the Rhode Island tandem of Evan Flanagan and Nick Johnson. Flanagan (0-1) spaced three hits and a run with two strikeouts and a walk over four innings.
Johnson held the Bears to one hit and struck out one in his two innings.
UMaine manufactured its run in the fourth. Colin Ridley stroked a double to right field with one out, moved up on Kevin Stypulkowski’s groundout and scored on a single through the right side by Tyler Schwanz.
The best threat by Rhode Island (16-20) came in the first inning. Chris Hess walked and Jordan Powell singled with one out. After they executed a double steal, Emerson struck out Brett McManus and induced Laurence Hill to ground out.
In the opener, Hill and Hess rapped two-out, RBI singles in the 10th inning to lift the Rams to victory.
Rhode Island utilized five pitchers, with Tyler Barss working a scoreless 10th to secure the win. Dom Grillo pitched four innings of two-hit shutout relief with four strikeouts.
Ridley paced UMaine with a triple, a single and an RBI while Brenden Geary and Lou Della Fera each posted two singles. Reliever Connor Johnson suffered the loss, giving up four hits and two runs in 3⅔ innings.
Connor Foreman paced the Rams with a double, a single and two RBIs. Powell contributed three singles.
The Black Bears grabbed a 2-0 lead against URI starter Blaise Whitman in the second. Ridley tripled, Schwanz hit an RBI double and Caleb Kerbs added a fielder’s choice.
The Rams responded with four runs in the third off starter Jonah Normandeau of Cumberland, who walked the first batter and hit the next with a pitch. Powell and Ryan Olmo each hit RBI singles, then Foreman delivered a two-run single to center.
Normandeau went seven innings and struck out seven, but hit two and walked one.
UMaine equalized in the bottom of the inning. Danny Casals walked, stole second and scored on Stypulkowski’s double. Ridley followed with a run-scoring single.
In the second, the Bears recorded an out with the hidden-ball trick. Third baseman Casals tagged out Foreman for the second out after he had doubled and taken third on a single.