ORONO, Maine — After his team was eliminated from the America East Tournament by Stony Brook last Friday at Mahaney Diamond, University of Maine junior pitcher Nick Silva probably summarized this past baseball season the best when he said “We did the most with what we had.”
Early in the season, the Black Bears lost ace right-hander and former Freshman All-American Justin Courtney from Bangor to Tommy John surgery. He never appeared in an America East game.
Courtney was 1-1 with a 2.57 ERA in four starts and held opponents to a .179 batting average before developing elbow issues. He would have been the first-game starter in the America East series. Without him, UMaine went 3-5 in series openers.
Jonah Normandeau from Cumberland was second in innings pitched with 66 and he had the second-best ERA among the starters at 4.36. He was limited to just 7 1/3 innings this season due tears in his rotator cuff tear and elbow.
Brewer’s Matt Pushard, who had a 1.00 ERA in 11 relief appearances in 2017, pitched just 1 2/3 innings and became a medical redshirt due to an arm issue.
Two weeks before the tournament, the Black Bears received the news that starting second baseman and tri-captain Caleb Kerbs was diagnosed with testicular cancer and would be sidelined.
It turned out to be a roller-coaster season for the Black Bears culminated by their 2-2 record in the tournament. For the second straight year, they lost their tourney opener. They went 4-2 a year ago, reaching the championship round.
They wound up 20-34 overall and went 12-12 in conference during the regular season, finishing fifth.
The bottom line this season was there were simply too many walks issued (281 in 448 1/3 innings) and way too many hit batters (90). The 90 hit batters is fifth-most in the country.
In addition to leading America East in walks and hit batters, UMaine also surrendered the most homers (43) and had the highest ERA (5.88).
The Black Bears were among the league leaders offensively and defensively, They led the league in homers (43) and were second in batting average (.271), runs scored (289) and slugging percentage (.409). Their .973 fielding percentage was second, also.
However, they also failed to hit in the clutch or move runners at times, leading to 10 losses by two runs or less.
The most damaging loss was the tourney-opening 2-1 setback to Stony Brook in which UMaine went 1-for-8 with men in scoring position and had the tying run at second and nobody out in the seventh and eighth innings and failed to deliver.
Several Black Bears turned in impressive seasons, not only did senior catcher-designated hitter Chris Bec and junior third baseman Danny Casals earn first team All-AE accolades, they were also chosen to the all-tournament team. Bec hit a team-leading .315 with a team-high 16 stolen bases, eight homers and 27 runs batted in.
Casals finished at .304 and led the league in homers (14) and RBIs (49).
The All-AE second teamers were senior pitcher John Arel, who emerged as their No. 1 starter and had a team-high five wins (5-4) with a 4.41 ERA; sophomore right fielder-first baseman Hernen Sardinas (.308-7-37) and slick-fielding junior shortstop Jeremy Pena (.308-5-28).
Reliever Matt Geoffrion (1-1, 5.16, 2 saves) was named to the all-rookie team.
Speedy sophomore left fielder Kevin Doody (.278-0-14, 14 stolen bases) hit .400 in the tourney and sophomore corner infielder Cody Pasic (.235-1-19) hit a solid .286 to supply second-year head coach Nick Derba with two pieces to the puzzle for next season.
Pasic can catch but he was behind seniors Bec and Jonathan Bennett (.258-3-34) so he wound up at first base with Sardinas, last year’s starting first baseman, moving to right. Pasic then moved to third when Kerbs received his diagnosis and Sardinas played first.
Pena, one of the best fielding shortstops in program history, is likely to get selected in the Major League Baseball draft and Casals also has a legitimate chance thanks to his power numbers. If they get drafted, they likely will sign and leave UMaine.
Derba will move Pasic behind the plate with Sardinas returning to first, Kerbs (.239-0-14) back at second and Doody in the outfield. Brandon Vicens (.233-2-11), an outstanding defensive center fielder, will have to be replaced.
Junior Colin Ridley (.233-2-19) started in right during the tournament but will have to earn a starting spot.
If Courtney can return from the surgery, the Black Bears will have a potential formidable three-man rotation with sophomore Cody Laweryson (3-3, 3.42) and Silva (3-6, 6.10) joining him. Silva had an impressive tourney outing, beating Albany 6-1, and he has allowed just one earned run in two tourney wins over the past two years.
Laweryson hasn’t allowed a run in four relief appearances spanning 11 2/3 innings over the past two AE tourneys so Derba may elect to keep him in the bullpen where he can use him more often.
Connor Johnson (2-3, 2 saves, 4.33) and Zach Winn (1-1, 2 saves, 4.87) had some impressive outings and will have to be replaced. Geoffrion, who struck out 34 in 29 2/3 innings, should be even more effective better and freshmen Ben Terwilliger (0-1, 2.89) and Peter Kemble (1-0, 8.78) showed promise. Pushard’s return will help the bullpen and a healthy Alex McKenney (arm trouble) could provide bullpen depth.
Lefties Eddie Emerson (0-4, 7.89) and Trevor DeLaite (2-3, 8.61) have to become more consistent to earn mound duty next season because Derba is bringing in lots of pitchers.
“We’ll be younger next year but we should be better on the mound,” said Derba.
Sixteen incoming players who will be in the hunt for playing time.
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