ORONO, Maine — Redshirt junior righthander Jonah Normandeau from Cumberland is already looking forward to his start in Wednesday’s 11 a.m. America East Tournament opener against the University at Albany at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts.
The Black Bears, 8-12 in America East and 21-27 overall, earned the fifth seed by virtue of a 2-1 Seniors Day win over fourth seed Albany (10-13, 24-24) at Mahaney Diamond Saturday afternoon.
No. 3 Stony Brook (12-10, 25-24) and No. 6 Hartford (8-13, 20-28) will play at 2:30 p.m. and the loser of that game will play the UMaine-Albany loser in an elimination game at 6 p.m.
If UMaine had lost Saturday, it would have been the sixth seed and would have played Stony Brook at 2:30 p.m.
Top seed and defending champ Binghamton (15-4, 30-11) will take on the UMaine-Albany winner at 11 a.m. Thursday and second seed University of Maryland, Baltimore County, (11-9, 20-23) will play the Stony Brook-Hartford victor at 2:30 p.m. with an elimination game to follow at 6 p.m.
The six-team, double-elimination affair will continue with three more games Friday leading up to Saturday’s championship round.
The tourney champ will advance to the NCAA Division I Tournament.
“I thrive on this kind of stuff,” Normandeau said late Saturday afternoon. “I’ve always been a big game kind-of-guy. I didn’t throw against Albany this season, but I threw against them last season in the tournament, and I threw pretty well.”
Normandeau threw 1 2/3 innings of one-hit, shutout relief with two strikeouts and no walks in Albany’s 9-8 win over UMaine in last year’s tourney, which eliminated the Black Bears.
“We got a chip on our shoulders [because of the loss]. We’re going to get after them,” UMaine senior left fielder Lou Della Fera said.
Normandeau met with UMaine interim head coach Nick Derba Friday, and Derba gave him an opportunity to throw two or three innings in Saturday’s game or just throw in the bullpen.
“I decided to throw in the bullpen and get some extra rest before I get after it on Wednesday,” Normandeau said.
Normandeau tossed six innings of six-hit, two-run ball in his last outing against UMass Lowell on May 13. He walked two and struck out one in UMaine’s 8-4 victory.
He is 2-5 with a 4.60 earned-run average spanning 60 2/3 innings. He has allowed 68 hits with 37 strikeouts and 29 walks.
Normandeau was excited to get the news from Derba that he was getting the start “especially with how hard I’ve worked this year to get into this position.”
Normandeau, who has five pitches (fastball, sinker, changeup, slider and curve), said it will be important for him to throw strikes, get ahead in the count and “keep them off balance. I want to get my strikeout pitch going. I haven’t had a lot of strikeouts.
“I’m going to give it everything I have,” he added.
Derba and the players said the Saturday victory will give them some momentum to take into the tournament.
“We’ve been playing really good baseball the past two weeks. We’re going to use [Saturday’s win] as momentum and start the tournament on the right note,” sophomore shortstop Jeremy Pena said.
“We’re in good position going into the playoffs,” Derba said. “You can’t score seven runs all the time. You have to be able to win those 2-1 games.”
UMaine went 1-2 in the tournament a year ago, beating Stony Brook 11-1 before losing to University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1-0 and Albany. UMaine went 0-2 in 2015 and 2014 after reaching the championship round the previous two seasons, losing to Binghamton in 2013 and Stony Brook in 2012.
UMaine’s last America East tourney championship came in 2011 and earned the Black Bears a spot in the University of North Carolina regional, where they went 1-2, including a 4-1 win over Florida International University.
Albany coach Jon Mueller feels the tournament is wide open.
“The league is very, very balanced. Anybody can win this tournament. Every team is dangerous,” Mueller said. “The team that pitches the best and plays the best defense will put themselves in position [to win it].”