ORONO, Maine — Sunday was a good day at Mahaney Diamond for former Bangor High School teammates Peter Kemble and Trevor DeLaite.
Kemble and DeLaite combined to throw six innings of three-hit, two-run relief and their University of Maine teammates rallied from a 6-0 deficit to beat America East leader Stony Brook 9-8 in the rubber game of their three-game series.
UMaine is now 13-17 overall, 9-8 in the league while Stony Brook is 25-19, 14-7.
Hernen Sardinas hit a pair of solo homers to fuel the comeback and knocked in the winning run with a fielder’s choice in the seventh inning.
The teams split a Saturday doubleheader with UMaine winning the opener 4-3 and Stony Brook taking the nightcap 5-3.
Sophomore righty Kemble pitched four innings of three-hit two-run relief to pick up the win. He struck out three and walked one while throwing 56 pitches, 42 for strikes.
Junior lefty DeLaite tossed two hitless innings to notch his fifth save. He struck out two and hit a batter and threw 15 strikes among his 18 pitches.
“It was a great Bangor (High) day,” said UMaine head coach Nick Derba. “Peter was awesome and Trevor was awesome. Peter has been like an unsung hero for us in terms of his role (starter and reliever). He’s always ready to go and he throws strikes.”
“It was fun for the Bangor High boys,” grinned Kemble.
“I was just trying to keep us in the ballgame. We were down early so I needed to give the offense a chance to come back,”’ Kemble said. “I went to the cutter a lot … cutter, sinker, curveball.
“This was a huge win for us. We kind of proved to ourselves what we’re capable of,” Kemble added.
“This will be a big momentum booster going into the final two weekends of the year,” DeLaite said. “It’s really good for the team. It will give the guys confidence.”
DeLaite, who collected a save in Saturday’s victory, said he felt better Sunday after being tired on Saturday.
“I had a little trouble with my breaking ball today but I was able to find it later,” DeLaite said. “I was able to attack the zone and be aggressive with my fastball. I was able to spot my fastball pretty well. When you show the breaking ball around the strike zone, you can sneak your fastball in. It worked out well.”
Stony Brook scored two runs in each of the first three innings to build its 6-0 lead.
UMaine began its comeback in the bottom of the third when Sardinas launched his eighth homer of the season to right.
UMaine scored three more in the fourth to pull within two on Danny Casals’ single, Joe Bramanti’s double, Colin Ridley’s RBI single, a walk, a bases loaded walk to Kevin Doody issued by reliever Aaron Glickstein, who had just replaced starter Jared Milch, and Jeffrey Omohundro’s run-scoring fielder’s choice.
Sean Buckhout’s RBI double in the fifth made it 7-4 but the Black Bears tied it up with three in the bottom of the frame.
Two walks and a hit batsman loaded the bases and a hit batsman forced in a run before the light-hitting Doody, who was hitting .118 entering the game, grounded a two-out, two-run single to center.
“Kevin’s a grinder out there. I have confidence in him,” said Sardinas whose homer in the sixth gave UMaine its first lead.
Stony Brook tied it in the seventh on Dylan Resk’s base hit, Johnny Decker’s double and Buckhout’s sacrifice fly.
But UMaine answered in the bottom of the inning.
Ryan Turenne lofted a single to shallow left off closer Sam Turcotte, went to second when Turcotte mishandled Doody’s sacrifice and moved to third when third baseman Decker was straddling the bag and never tagged it on Omohundro’s sacrifice to Turcotte.
Sardinas then went the opposite way with a grounder into the shortstop hole that delivered Turenne as shortstop Nick Grande had to dive to his right and then threw to third for the out.
“I was just trying to get the run in any way possible,” Sardinas said. “We always know we can come back. We have a lot of heart.”
“It’s super disappointing any time you (lose) a six-run lead,” said Stony Brook coach Matt Senk. “We weren’t able to close the deal. Credit to Nick (Derba) and his team. They played real hard this weekend. It was a hard-fought series and they deserved two wins.”
Sardinas was UMaine’s only repeat hitter while Resk had three hits for Stony Brook, including his two doubles. Chris Hamilton homered and singled and drove in two, John Tuccillo homered and singled and Decker doubled and singled.
On Saturday, Casals’ seventh homer of the year, a one-out blast to left center in the eighth inning, gave the Black Bears a 4-3 lead in the opener and DeLaite pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the ninth.
Stony Brook had taken a 3-2 lead in the sixth on Mike Wilson’s homer and back-to-back doubles by Resk and Decker.
UMaine tied it in the bottom of the sixth on Bramanti’s double, Ridley’s sacrifice and Kerbs’ sacrifice fly.
Bramanti and Cody Pasic each doubled and singled for UMaine and Nick Silva picked up the win with seven innings of six-hit, three-run ball.
Decker had three hits including a double for Stony Brook and Hamilton doubled and singled.
In the second game, Hamilton’s three-run homer and a solo shot by Wilson off UMaine’s Cody Laweryson, who had allowed just one homer in 46 ⅔ innings entering the game, led Stony Brook to the victory.
Brett Clarke notched the win in the seven-inning affair and Turcotte had a save.
Ridley doubled twice for UMaine.