ORONO, Maine — While its baseball team attempts to be a somewhat inhospitable host when confronting its opponents on the field this week, University of Maine athletics has received high marks for its efforts as the host of the America East baseball tournament.
The 2018 event marks the first time UMaine has hosted the tournament in 14 years.
During the last four seasons, it had been held at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts, the home field for the University of Massachusetts Lowell and for the Lowell Spinners, the Class A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.
“It has been great,” said America East associate commissioner Chad Dwyer. “Everything we’ve expected coming to Maine and the support from their staff, the spectator support and the facility has shown itself to be first class.”
Dwyer said he learned from a couple of coaches that the UMaine staff “put a volunteer on as a liaison for each of our schools … just to answer questions (such as) which restaurants can we bring the team, where can we get sandwiches, where would you suggest we go to burn some time like mini-golfing? That has been really helpful and hospitable.”
“It has been a great event,” University at Albany junior designated hitter Matt Codispoti said on Thursday.
“It has been amazing so far,” said UMass Lowell freshman third baseman Joey Castellanos. “It has been a lot of fun. The energy has been unreal, playing in front of the fans. And the facility is awesome.”
UMass Lowell was the host school the last four years when the River Hawks were ineligible for the league tournament. They were amidst a four-year probationary period after making the jump from NCAA Division II to Division I.
“It has been a great experience. We got goodie bags at the hotel. The hospitality has been awesome,” said UML senior second baseman Ben Prada.
“You can’t beat it,” said University of Maryland Baltimore County pitcher Stephen Schoch, who is a redshirt sophomore.
“The facilities are great and the people are nice. They don’t have to be, but they are,” grinned Schoch.
“They are nice and we’re one of the teams fighting (UMaine),” chuckled Prada.
“They have taken great care of us,” said UMass Lowell junior right fielder Mike Young. “It is one of the better fields in the league. And they’ve got that hitting cage (the Paul J. Mitchell Batting Pavilion that is next to the field) inside so, before the game, you can get ready.”
River Hawks senior catcher Nick Barry said the America East banquet held in Orono the night before the tournament was awesome and teammate Mark Tumosa called the experience “unreal.”
Albany coach Jon Mueller has been coming to Orono 19 years and considers it his favorite facility.
“It’s the best field around,” said Mueller.
The tournament, however, didn’t draw a large crowd, with only 358 fans to Wednesday’s three games and 308 to Thursday’s games.
The tournament will go to Binghamton next season.
Dwyer explained that league athletic directors wanted to play the tournament at a facility that has lights and artificial turf so, “we can have three, three-game days.”
With America East mandating that no team can play three games in a day and no game can start after 9:30 p.m., a rain-soaked tournament on a natural grass field or without lights “could put us in a situation where we had to declare a winner without finishing the tournament. And we didn’t want to be in that situation.”
That nearly occurred last year at Lowell, he said.
Dwyer said no decision has been made on America East tournament venues after 2019.
“We will review this one and next year’s after it’s over and we’ll figure out what we’re going to do in 2020 and after that,” said Dwyer.
UMaine’s Laweryson, Silva strong at tourneys
Two University of Maine pitchers who have distinguished themselves during the last two America East tournaments have been sophomore right-hander Cody Laweryson from Moscow and Upper Kennebec Valley High in Bingham and junior righty Nick Silva from Miami.
Laweryson has made four relief appearances, two last season and two in this tournament, and hasn’t given up an earned run in 11 2/3 innings.
He has surrendered seven hits with 12 strikeouts and just two walks.
Silva has won both of his starts, 3-0 over Stony Brook a year ago and 6-1 over Albany on Thursday night. He has allowed only one run and six hits with 14 strikeouts and eight walks.
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