The America East-leading University of Maine’s baseball team received a tie-breaking two-run double by Joe Bramanti in the seventh inning and added a pair of two-out runs in the eighth thanks to an infield throwing error to edge Albany 7-6 in Albany, N.Y. and complete a three-game sweep.
UMaine had outlasted Albany 12-10 on Friday and, after Saturday’s game was rained out, took both ends of Sunday’s doubleheader as it triumphed 8-6 in the first game.
UMaine improved to 15-14 overall and 12-3 in conference play.
The Black Bears have won eight of their last nine games.
Albany fell to 15-16 and 5-10.
UMaine trailed 3-1 in Sunday’s second game but Quinn McDaniels’ infield single delivered a fifth-inning run and Scout Knotts tied with a hammer in the sixth.
In the seventh, Jordan Schulefand’s bunt single, a hit batsman and a walk loaded the bases before Bramanti doubled to right center.
South Portland’s Noah Lewis pitched five innings of shutout relief to earn the win. Schulefand survived a three-run ninth.
Knotts had a double to go with his homer while Will Binder had two doubles and three runs batted in for Albany and Brad Malm homered.
In Sunday’s seven-inning first game, McDaniel’s bases-loaded triple capped a five-run second-inning rally and the Black Bears went on to built an 8-1 lead before surviving a four-riun seventh-inning rally to notch the win.
UMaine was aided by two errors and a wild pitch in its second-inning uprising and all five runs scored after there were two outs.
Singles by Colby Emmertz of Falmouth and Connor Goodman jump-started the rally before an error and a wild pitch produced the first run. An infield error plated the second run before Jeremiah Jenkins was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Eliot’s McDaniel followed with his triple to right center.
UMaine expanded the lead to 7-0 in the third when Mike Pratte and Schulefand were each hit by pitches with the bases loaded.
Leading 8-2 entering the bottom of the seventh, UMaine reliever Matt Pushard from Brewer got the first two outs before a walk and consecutive singles by Michael Whalen, Will Feill, John Daly, Binder and Chris Fisher pulled the Great Danes within two.
But Pushard struck out pinch-hitter Mike Prisco to end it.
Jake Marquez had a run-scoring double and single for UMaine and Goodman singled twice.
Brett Erwin tossed six innings of five-hit two-run ball with six strikeouts and two walks to earn his second win in five decisions.
Binder had a double and two singles for Albany, which committed four errors with all of them contributing to UMaine’s runs. Whalen, Fisher and Daly had two singles apiece.
On Friday, Knotts’ grand slam and Schulefand’s two-run homer helped UMaine build a 12-4 lead and the Black Bears withstood an Albany rally that saw the Great Danes score unanswered runs over the last three innings.
The homers by Knotts in the first inning and Schulefand in the fourth offset Whalen’s three-run homer in the bottom of the first to give UMaine a 6-3 lead.
UMaine added four runs in the fifth without the benefit of a hit on two errors by reliever Chase Carroll, two walks, a wild pitch, a run-producing passed ball and a hit batsman (Ryan Turenne) that delivered another run.
Johnny Marti’s solo homer in the fifth cut the lead to 10-3 but UMaine pushed across two more in the sixth on doubles by Bramanti and Goodman and Marquez’s run-scoring base hit.
Pushard came on in relief with one out in the ninth and got the final two outs for his fourth save of the season.
Schulefand had three hits for UMaine including his grand slam and Knotts had a single to go with his homer. Marquez had a pair of base hits.
York’s Trevor LaBonte threw six innings of 10-hit, five-run ball to even his record at 3-3.
Marti and Brad Malm each had three hits for the Great Danes. One of Malm’s hits was a triple while Marti had his homer. Whalen had a single to accompany his homer and knocked in five runs. Josh Loeffler doubled and singled and Daly singled twice.