ORONO, Maine — Third baseman Danny Casals is leading the University of Maine’s baseball team in hitting with his .309 average.
Left fielder Colin Ridley has a team-high 37 runs batted in and is tied for the lead in homers with six.
And both are freshmen.
They will be making their America East tournament debuts at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday when the Black Bears take on defending champ Stony Brook in a first-round game at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Sixth seed Maine is 19-33 overall, 8-15 in the conference, while No. 3 Stony Brook is 24-25, 13-9. Stony Brook went 4-1 against the Black Bears this season.
Two other freshmen have played prominent roles as shortstop Jeremy Pena is the third-leading hitter among the regulars at .275 and Nick Silva leads in saves with four.
Casals, Ridley and Pena were all selected to the America East All-Rookie team by the league’s coaches on Tuesday and senior pitcher Logan Fullmer was a first-team pick.
Maine will be seeking its first tournament title since 2011 and has gone 0-2 in each of the last two seasons after going 7-4 over the previous three tourneys.
Casals and Ridley are looking forward to their first league tournament.
“This is what you practice for and play for your entire life: making a run in the playoffs,” said Casals, who is from Miami, Florida.
He said he hasn’t been surprised by his success because “we’ve worked hard and we have a great coaching staff that has helped me get a lot better.”
“It’s a nice accomplishment but I just want to win,” added Casals, who also leads the team in stolen bases (12), triples (3), hits (58) and on-base percentage (.405).
Ridley said he has “really surprised” himself.
“Baseball has been good to me this year. The thing is, when you get hot and get confident, you feel nothing can stop you,” said Ridley, who is hitting .291 and is second on the team in doubles (11) and triples (2).
Ridley is from Harwich, Massachusetts, but has never played at LeLacheur Park since the Bears hosted the UMass Lowell River Hawks this season.
First baseman Brenden Geary is one of the Black Bears’ senior captains and he said the freshmen “have done more than we expected. They’ve led the team.”
“Now it’s time for us older guys to step up. We’ve been in the tournament before,” said Geary.
It has been a forgettable regular season for the Black Bears, with five losing streaks of at least four games, but a season-ending 12-7 win at Binghamton against the league regular-season champs and the sense that there is parity in the conference has given them confidence.
“In all of our minds, we have felt we could be a dangerous team in the tournament,” said Geary. “I wouldn’t want to play us right now. If we get good pitching and timely hitting, we can make a nice run.”
“If we can win game one, I’ll feel very confident about our chances,” said Maine coach Steve Trimper. “If not, we’re going to have to fight our way through and use our [pitching] depth.”
Senior catcher Kevin Stypulkowski said they have been competitive with every team in the conference and all the teams are “pretty even.”
“Nobody has shocked us,” said Stypulkowski, whose Black Bears own at least one win over all the tournament teams except Hartford.