ORONO, Maine — University of Maine softball coach Mike Coutts spends a lot of time working with his players on hitting the ball to the opposite field.

It paid huge dividends Saturday as two-out, opposite-field singles by pinch-hitter Faythe Goins and designated hitter Maddie Decker supplied the Black Bears with a pair of walk-off wins over Stony Brook at Kessock Field, 4-3 and 3-2 in eight innings.

UMaine finished off the series sweep with an 8-0, four and a half-inning mercy rule victory Sunday behind senior lefty Erin Bogdanovich’s four-hitter and three-run homers by Alyssa Derrick and Erika Leonard. Felicia Lennon added a two-run double.

UMaine improved to 12-18 overall, 7-1 in America East, while Stony Brook fell to 9-21, 5-5.

“We were even working on hitting to the opposite field before the [first] game. The girls are comfortable with it,” Coutts said. “We have to stay inside [with our hands] and stay short to the inside of the ball. We miss fewer pitches that way.”

It was an opposite-field single by Derrick, her sixth hit of the doubleheader, that started the eighth inning rally as she lined a 3-2 pitch from Lindsey Hughes to right field.

“That’s the first time I went [opposite-field] in a while,” Derrick said. “We’ve been practicing that a lot, and it really helped on that one.”

Pinch-runner Emily Gilmore moved to second on a one-out wild pitch by Melissa Rahrich and scored when Decker lined a 1-2 pitch to right field.

“I had two strikes so I was just looking for anything I could get my hands on,” Decker said. “She threw me an outside pitch, and I was able to go with it to the opposite field.”

Junior righthander Molly Flowers bounced back from a Thursday outing against the University of Massachusetts in Lowell in which she lasted just two-thirds of an inning by going the distance and striking out 10. She allowed six hits and walked three. One of the runs was unearned.

“You’re going to have bad days and good days. You have have to keep on trying,” said Flowers, who threw 83 strikes among her 132 pitches. “My changeup was working today. They were chasing it a lot.”

“I was real proud of the way Molly came back. She did a great job,” Coutts said. “Her changeup was awesome. It really kept the hitters off-balance.”

Stony Brook had erased a pair of one-run deficits to force extra innings.

A bases-loaded walk to Kristen Niland forced in a first-inning run for UMaine, but Irene Rivera’s two-out RBI single in the third tied it.

Derrick belted her team-leading eighth homer over the left center field fence in the bottom of the third, but a Chelsea Evans double and two-out single by Sami Duffy knotted it up again in the fourth.

Derrick went four-for-four for the Black Bears while Katelyn Corr had a pair of singles for the Seawolves.

In the opener, Gilmore was gunned down at the plate on Decker’s single to shallow right after Niland and Meghan Royle also had singled.

But Goins pushed a ground ball single to right center to score Royle.

“I knew [Rahrich] kept the ball low and I like it low,” Goins said. “I think it was a curveball that was low and on the outer half of the plate, and when it came off my bat, I thought, ‘All right. It’s a hit.”

“It was the right spot for her,” Coutts said. “She had a couple of big hits for us on the spring trip.”

Stony Brook jumped out to a 3-0 lead against 2016 America East Pitcher of the Year Bogdanovich in the first inning on a Bogdanovich error, a Rahrich double and Rivera’s fourth homer of the season, a three-run blast to center field.

But Bogdanovich settled down and pitched six innings of scoreless five-hit ball the rest of the way. She finished with five strikeouts and no walks.

“I hadn’t been hitting my spots great this year, but I focused on that today and I hit every spot [after the Rivera homer],” said Bogdanovich, who threw 92 pitches of which 67 were strikes.

UMaine tied it in the fifth on singles by Leonard and Rachel Carlson, a sacrifice, Derrick’s towering pop fly that misplayed into an RBI single and two-out RBI base hits by Royle and Decker.

“We had the opportunity to get out of that inning [without allowing a run] if we had made a play or two but that’s the way it is sometimes,” said Stony Brook assistant Megan Timpf, who teamed with fellow assistant Jamie Kertes to run the team after head coach Megan Bryant was ejected in the seventh inning of the second game for continually arguing a third strike call and not heeding umpire Tony Gowell’s request to stop.

“I was proud of the fight the team showed in the second game,” Timpf added.

Carlson and Royle had three hits each as UMaine had a season-high 16 hits. Derrick, Harvey and Decker had two apiece.

Lexie Shue singled twice for Stony Brook.

“It was real good to get a sweep. I don’t think we’ve ever had two walk-off wins in a row,” Derrick said. “Erin and Molly pitched amazing.”