ORONO — After going 1-for-8 with men in scoring position in a frustrating America East tournament-opening 2-1 loss to Stony Brook, the University of Maine scored seven runs in the first two innings to eliminate the University of Maryland, Baltimore County 9-4 in Wednesday night’s elimination game at Mahaney Diamond.
Danny Casals homered and singled and drove in four runs in UMaine’s 14-hit attack and Chris Bec tripled and doubled and knocked in three as UMaine (19-33) advanced to play at 6 p.m. on Thursday against the lowest-seeded loser from Games 4 and 5 (UMass Lowell, Stony Brook or Albany).
UMBC, which beat UMaine to win the tourney title a year ago, finished at 22-29. The Retrievers dropped their opener to Albany 8-5.
Casals’ league-leading 14th homer of the season, a three-run blast, highlighted a four-run first-inning uprising, and Bec’s two-run triple keyed the three-run second inning rally.
All seven runs came off senior righty Matt Chanin, who had pitched eight innings of two-hit shutout ball in a 5-2 win over UMaine on April 29.
Jeremy Pena started the first-inning rally with a pop fly single off the glove of right fielder Collin Stack.
Hernen Sardinas reached on second baseman A.J. Wright’s throwing error and Bec grounded a double down the third-base line to score Pena. Casals followed with his blast to left field.
“It was a 2-0 fastball right down Broadway and I was able to get a good swing on it,” said Casals. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to produce as much as we wanted to in the first game but we made our adjustments and we were able to produce in the second game.”
Cody Pasic ignited the second-inning rally by punching an opposite-field single to left and Sardinas lined a one-out single to left-center.
Bec followed by grounding his opposite-field triple down the right-field line and Casals singled him home.
“I got in front of a curveball and, luckily, it stayed fair,” said Bec.
UMBC pushed across single runs in the second and third innings at the expense of starter Zach Winn, who struggled with his control but was able to limit the Retrievers to two runs over four innings.
Winn went to three-ball counts on 10 of the 21 hitters he faced.
Matt Campbell singled in the second-inning run and a bases-loaded wild pitch produced the third-inning run.
UMaine extended the lead to 8-2 against reliever Aaron Husson in the sixth on a walk to Pena and Sardinas’ one-out triple to right.
Zack Bright’s two-out, two-run single off reliever and winner Trevor DeLaite made it 8-4 in the sixth but the Black Bears answered with a run in the seventh on Kevin Doody’s two-out single and Colin Ridley’s run-scoring double.
Matt Geoffrion hurled three innings of scoreless relief for the Black Bears to close it out.
“I needed to come in and throw strikes and that’s what happened, I guess,” said Geoffrion, who allowed one hit and struck out five.
The top four hitters in the UMaine lineup, Pena (2-for-4), Sardinas (2-for-5), Bec (3-for-4) and Casals (2-for-4) went 9-for-17 with eight RBIs and seven runs scored after going 1-for-14 in the opener.
In the first game, Stony Brook scored two unearned runs in the second inning and made them stand up.
Stony Brook (30-23) plays regular-season champion Hartford at 11 a.m. Thursday.
“You can’t win like that. We squandered too many opportunities,” said UMaine coach Nick Derba.
The Seawolves were helped significantly by the Black Bears in the second.
Michael Wilson singled on an 0-2 pitch from UMaine starter and loser John Arel, who lasted just three innings.
The Black Bears then botched a rundown as Wilson evaded first baseman Sardinas’ tag.
After a walk, UMaine right fielder Colin Ridley reached up but dropped Cristian Montes’ well-hit liner for an error.
Casals’ relay throw to the plate skipped by catcher Jonathan Bennett for another error and Brandon Alamo then hit a sacrifice fly.
UMaine got its lone run in the fourth.
Sardinas pulled a double down the right-field line off starter and winner Greg Marino and eventually scored on Brandon Vicens’ sacrifice fly.
UMaine wasted leadoff doubles in the seventh and eighth innings.
In the seventh, Bennett doubled to right-center. Vicens put down a bunt and first baseman Chris Hamilton fielded it, hesitated, looked Bennett back to second and then threw to second to nail Bennett.
“That’s on me,” said Bennett. “I saw the bunt but I didn’t go, I kind of froze. I had to get back but I didn’t. (Hamilton) made a perfect throw. It was a big turning point.”
Kevin Doody followed with a single but was erased on a nifty 4-6-3 double play triggered by second baseman Brandon Janofsky’s nice stab off Ridley’s sharp one-hopper.
In the eighth, Cody Pasic sliced a double to left off reliever Aaron Pinto and moved to third on Pena’s sacrifice. But Sardinas bounced to first with the infield drawn-in and then Bec took a called third strike.
Pinto retired the side in the ninth for his school-record 15th career save, including 12 this season.
Laweryson threw 4 2/3 innings of three-hit, shutout ball before Connor Johnson came on in the ninth to get the final out as Doody made a great run-saving catch in left.