College Baseball
MAINE vs. UMASS LOWELL
Time, site: Saturday, noon (2); Sunday, noon, LeLacheur Park, Lowell, Mass.
Records: UMaine 10-23 (5-4 America East); UMass Lowell 15-18 (6-6)
Series, last meeting: UMaine leads 11-3, UMaine 8-4 on 5/13/17
Key players: Maine — 3B Danny Casals (.301 batting average-7 homers-23 runs batted in, 23 runs scores), C-DH Chris Bec (.296-4-14), C-DH Jonathan Bennett (.291-1-20), RF Hernen Sardinas (.280-4-20, 20 runs), SS Jeremy Pena (.279-3-14, 27 runs); UMass Lowell — DH Ted Leathersich (.325-0-5), RF Russ Olive (.375-9-23, 31 runs, 9 doubles), CF Colby Maiola (.305-5-28), 1B Steve Passatempo (.299-6-19, 38 runs), LF Cam Climo (.236-1-31)
Pitching matchups: UMaine — RH John Arel (4-0, 3.13 earned run average), Zach Winn (1-0, 3.33), Nick Silva (2-4, 5.63); UML — RH Andrew Ryan (2-2, 4.22), RH Henry Funaro (3-4, 5.09), LH Jack Riley (1-5, 5.69)
Game notes: This series features five of the top 11 hitters in America East in Olive (3rd), Maiola (7th), Casals (8th), Passatempo (10th) and Bec (11th). UMaine went 4-2 against UMass Lowell last season, winning the last four meetings. The River Hawks had a five-game winning streak snapped by No. 24 Connecticut, 14-7, on Wednesday. Three of those wins came at the expense of defending AE champ Maryland, Baltimore County by a combined score of 20-3. Ryan was the AE Pitcher of the Week and Funaro was the Co-Rookie of the Week after their efforts against UMBC. Olive and Casals are 1-2 in the conference in homers and Climo is the league’s RBI leader. The Black Bears have lost four of their last six but scored 26 runs and pounded out 41 hits while going 1-2 vs. Sacred Heart and Monmouth last weekend.