The University of Maine baseball team will be the sixth seed and will face No. 3 Stony Brook (N.Y.) in its America East Tournament opener on Wednesday at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts, after concluding the regular season with a 12-7 triumph over regular season titlist Binghamton on Saturday in Vestal, New York.
Senior catcher Kevin Stypulkowski belted his fifth and sixth homers of the season and drove in four runs and freshman third baseman Danny Casals knocked in three with a pair of doubles as Maine snapped a four-game losing streak.
Maine will enter Wednesday’s 3:30 p.m. game against Stony Brook with an 8-15 conference record and an overall mark of 19-33. The Seawolves, who took two of three from Maine last weekend, are 13-9 and 24-25.
Binghamton wound up 19-5 and 27-23 and earned a first-round bye in the double-elimination affair as did second seed Hartford (14-8, 36-15).
The other Wednesday AE tournament game will pit No. 4 University of Maryland-Baltimore County (12-10, 27-21) against No. 5 Albany (9-14, 21-28) at noon.
The losers of Wednesday’s first two games will play an elimination game at 7 p.m.
The UMBC-Albany winner will play Binghamton at noon on Thursday and the Stony Brook-Maine victor will take on Hartford at 3:30 p.m.
On Saturday, the Black Bears erased a 5-2 deficit with a six-run rally in the sixth inning. All six runs scored after two were out.
Colin Ridley singled and Tyler Schwanz was hit by a pitch before Brenden Geary sacrificed them to second and third.
One out later, Brett Chappell singled them home to make it 5-4.
Caleb Kerbs singled Chappell to third and Lou Della Fera’s base hit scored Chappell to tie the game.
Jeremy Pena reached on an infield single and when shortstop Paul Rufo made a throwing error, Kerbs scored.
Casals capped the rally with a two-run double to left center.
Maine added a run in the seventh but Jason Agresti’s two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh made it 9-7.
Stypulkowski walloped a three-run homer to right in the ninth to give the Black Bears some breathing room.
Stypulkowski also had a single to go with his two homers.
“The bats woke up today,” said Maine coach Steve Trimper. “Stypulkowski and Brett Chappell had been in a bit of a slump. We wanted to get hot.”
Connor Johnson picked up the win in relief with three innings of two-hit, two-run ball before Charlie Butler and Jonathan Salcedo each pitched a scoreless inning.
Senior Salcedo, who is a catcher, was making his mound debut.
Daniel Franchi had two singles for Binghamton and David Schanz hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning off Maine sophomore righty Justin Courtney, who pitched for the first time in over two months due to a tender arm.
“We figured Justin would be rusty. We just wanted to get the rust off. We’re going to need every arm in this tournament,” said Trimper. “It’s going to be an interesting tournament. Anyone can win it.”