The University of Maine baseball team’s magic number for clinching the top seed for the tournament is two.
Any combination of UMaine wins and New Jersey Institute of Technology or Binghamton losses that add up to two means UMaine is the top seed. UMass Lowell would have to win its last nine league games and UMaine would have to lose its last nine conference games in order for UMass Lowell to tie the Black Bears.
UMaine (18-3 in the conference) plays three at UMass Lowell (9-12) this weekend while NJIT and Binghamton, both 11-10, square off in a three-game set in Binghamton.
The top two seeds earn important first-round byes.
And since that the UMaine baseball team has pretty much sewn up the top seed for the six-team, double-elimination America East Tournament it will host on May 25-28, the Black Bears are focusing on extending their 13-game winning streak and building momentum for the tournament.
“I would like to see us start playing cleaner games,” said UMaine fifth-year head coach Nick Derba. “We haven’t played our best baseball yet, I hope. We have to get better on defense and we have to work on some other things offensively in order to take steps forward … things like bunts, hit-and-runs, the signs. These are little things you have to rely on [in the tournament].”
In looking at the statistics in conference games only, UMaine is seventh among eight teams in fielding percentage at .961.
But the Black Bears lead in virtually every offensive category including batting average (.329), runs (203), doubles (53), homers (30), total bases (416), slugging percentage (.529) and on-base percentage (.438). The Black Bears are also second in stolen bases with 51.
And the pitching staff has the second-lowest earned-run average at 4.86, less than a percentage point higher than Binghamton.
“We need to limit our errors, continue to create good at-bats and back up our pitching staff,” said graduate student Joe Bramanti, who plays first base and right field and leads the team in homers with 13, doubles (14), runs-batted in (54), total bases (94) and slugging percentage (.635) in all games, conference and non-conference.
Bramanti likes the fact the team is finding ways to win close games. Nine of UMaine’s victories during the 13-game winning streak have been by two runs or less, including two fueled by ninth-inning rallies.
UMaine scored two in the ninth to beat NJIT 7-6 and one in the ninth to tie UMass Lowell before winning 4-3 in 11 innings.
“We are finding ways to win and we need to continue to do that,” said graduate student right fielder-pitcher Jordan Schulefand, who noted that playoff games are often low-scoring, one-run games so they can’t rely on always scoring a lot of runs.
In moving forward, Derba will also be looking for his three starting pitchers to continue to improve.
He said he may not have a true ace like 2021 First Team All-American/America East Pitcher of the Year Nick Sinacola or 2019 All-America East first team Cody Laweryson, but he has confidence in graduate student Trevor LaBonte from York, a transfer from the University of Maryland; freshman lefty Caleb Leys; and graduate student Brett Erwin, a transfer from the University of California-Davis.
“We may not have a true No. 1 whose numbers are off the charts but I’ll put them up against any other team’s number ones,” Derba said. “They compete and they throw strikes. If they can give us a quality start [six innings, three earned runs or less], we will be okay.”
Leys is 3-1 with a 3.22 earned-run average and has allowed one earned run or less in five of his last six outings with a 2.28 ERA over those six outings.
Erwin is 2-3 with a 3.99 ERA and has posted a 3.71 ERA over his last five starts.
LaBonte is 3-3 with a 4.17 ERA but has a 3.00 ERA over his last five appearances.