ORONO, Maine — Entering Saturday afternoon’s regular-season finale against the University at Albany, University of Maine sophomore lefty Eddie Emerson from Lewiston and freshman righty Matt Pushard from Brewer had each thrown only 14 2/3 innings this season and hadn’t pitched since May 3.
But Emerson and Pushard combined for 4 1/3 innings of two-hit shutout relief as the Black Bears collected a 2-1 Seniors Day victory at Mahaney Diamond, which gave UMaine the fifth seed for the America East tournament and a first-round date with No. 4 Albany at 11 a.m. Wednesday at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts.
UMaine improved to 21-27 overall, 8-12 in America East, while Albany fell to 24-24 and 10-13. Albany had won five straight games, including 7-6 and 3-2 (10 innings) wins over UMaine on Friday.
Emerson (2-0) gave up one hit in 2 1/3 innings and struck out four while walking two. He came on with the bases loaded, two outs and a run already in during the fifth inning and he struck out Connor Powers to preserve the 2-1 lead.
Pushard allowed one hit while striking out four over the final two innings to earn his first college save. He struck out the side in the ninth. He didn’t walk anybody.
“You can’t write it any better,” said a smiling Pushard, who lowered his earned run average to 1.08. “That’s the right way to end the regular season. Now we have playoffs so, hopefully, momentum will bring us into that and we’ll win more games.
“I felt great out there,” Pushard added. “Lately, I’ve been throwing a lot more long toss and that has given me more velocity on my fastball. My fastball felt really good. It was great to get the win for the seniors. They have done a lot for us. We look up to them.”
He also said interim head coach Nick Derba and volunteer assistant coach Scott Heath have been working with him on his breaking ball, and that has also paid dividends.
“I switched my grip on it and it feels a lot better. Coach Derba and Coach Heath have been getting on me about throwing my curve harder and not having a loopy one,” Pushard said.
“Our job is to go out and throw strikes and that’s what we tried to do today,” Emerson said. “I felt really good. It has been a while since my last outing so I wanted to go out there and throw strikes right away and throw them often.”
Emerson went to a 2-2 count before getting Powers swinging with a fastball.
“You have to go in and throw strikes in that situation and limit the damage,” Emerson said.
A walk and a two-out single by Kyle Sacks put runners on first and second with two outs in the sixth, but Emerson induced a grounder to third to end the threat.
“We needed [Emerson and Pushard] to step up for us today and they definitely did,” said UMaine left fielder Lou Della Fera, one of three seniors who was honored in a pregame ceremony along with closer Jeff Gelinas and right fielder Tyler Schwanz.
UMaine scored both of its runs in the fourth inning.
Schwanz and Jonathan Bennett each singled to left and moved up on a wild pitch thrown by freshman righty and loser Ray Weber, who is now 1-2.
Brandon Vicens scored Schwanz with a perfectly-placed safety squeeze bunt down the first base line that became a base hit, and Bennett crossed the plate on Hernen Sardinas’ grounder to second.
Redshirt junior righthander Zach Winn made his first career start for the Black Bears after 14 relief appearances and threw four impressive innings of two-hit shutout baseball before walking four in the fifth to force in a run and being replaced by Emerson.
Della Fera and Christopher Bec had two singles each for UMaine while Travis Collins singled twice for the Great Danes, who were held to four hits.
“This was a real good win. It was the first time in a long while that we’ve actually won a one-run game,” said Derba, whose Black Bears had lost three straight one-run games.
“We were the two hottest teams going into this weekend and we played three one-run ballgames. Both teams pitched well and defended well in windy conditions,” Albany coach Jon Mueller said.