University of Maine baseball coach Nick Derba began the season with the expectations he always has for his Black Bears: win the America East playoffs and earn an NCAA Regional bid like they did a year ago.
Before the season even began, he learned he was going to be without two of his four starting pitchers in 2023 America East first teamer Colin Fitzgerald (hip surgery) and 2022 All-Rookie team selection Caleb Leys (Tommy John arm surgery).
Leys was chosen to the All-Tournament team last season.
But the injury situation has escalated to an unprecedented magnitude.
“It’s nuts,” said Derba, who has never experienced anything like this before.
“Now our expectations are to just make the playoffs,” said Derba.
Six of the seven conference teams qualify for the tournament, which will be held in Binghamton.
“It’s a shame to have the bar be set so low but that’s all we can do right now,” he said.
Promising freshman outfielders Chase Trolaro (knee) and Evan Baschnagel (elbow) have been lost for the season and the injury list has continued to grow.
All-America East first team pitcher Gianni Gambardella (triceps) and valuable reliever Colton Carson (oblique strain) missed this past weekend’s series at UMass Lowell and everyday starters catcher Dean O’Neill (concussion), left fielder Nick White (separated shoulder) and second baseman Myles Sargent (hand) sustained injuries at UMass Lowell along with reserve infielder Jeph Hadson-Taylor (back spasms).
And All-America East first team designated hitter Connor Goodman tried to play on Friday after being sidelined by a knee injury but had to leave after grounding out in his one at-bat.
Derba said White will be sidelined at least two weeks; Gambardella and O’Neill will be out this week although O’Neill could return as soon as Saturday in a non-conference game against Rider and he won’t know until later in the week about Sargent or Hadson-Taylor.
He said Goodman may be available to pinch hit but his days as an everyday DH are probably over.
Sargent is the team’s leading hitter at .324 and White is second in RBIs (24) and tied for second in homers with four. O’Neill has three homers and 13 RBIs.
Senior Logan Burrill will replace White in left field and freshmen Charlie Taub and Will Burns will fill in for O’Neill and Goodman, respectively.
Another freshman, Jonathan Gonzalez, will take the place of Sargent and Derba said he could either play second or shortstop with current starting shortstop Jake Marquez possibly moving over to play second.
The biggest issue for the Black Bears is the pitching staff’s inability to throw strikes.
It is issuing 7.89 walks per nine-inning game and there are only six teams among 295 Division I schools who walk more hitters.
The Black Bears have also hit 50 batters and uncorked 53 wild pitches.
The team’s walks and hits per nine-inning ratio of 2.10 per inning is 280th in the country.
UMaine has six pitchers who have made at least six appearances and have more walks than strikeouts.
In the last nine games, they have surrendered innings of at least four runs nine times.
The team ERA is a lofty 8.42 which is sixth among seven teams in America East.
A lot of it has to do with inexperience as several freshmen and sophomores like Gabe Gifford, Owen Wheeler, Jason Krieger and Blaine Cockburn are getting early mound duty they weren’t likely to get this season if the staff was healthy. And they have had their struggles.
Derba had scheduled several mid-week non-conference games in order to get them experience but they have been forced to pitch in conference games.
And, as Derba noted, there are pitchers who simply haven’t pitched up to expectations like senior Noah Lewis, a second team All-America East pick a year ago who has a 16.13 earned run average this season after posting a 4.32 ERA a year ago.
He would have been the No. 2 starter in the rotation.
The good news is that there is still a lot of season left and three of the final four three-game conference series will be played in Orono.
So pitchers like Lewis and the youngsters can still get untracked and contribute down the stretch.
And even though UMaine is 4-7 in conference play, 8-22 overall, there are two teams with worse league records in Albany (3-8) and Binghamton (3-9) and both teams are visiting Orono for three-game sets.
Four of UMaine’s seven conference losses have been by one run and three were walk-offs.
Two-run ninth-inning rallies cost them wins against the New Jersey Institute of Technology and UMass Lowell. A run in the bottom of the seventh inning of a seven-inning game enabled Bryant to force extra innings and the league leaders won in the eighth.
UMaine also squandered a 6-2 lead in a 9-7 loss at Albany.
Derba said he has had to “burn redshirts” due to injuries meaning players have been forced to play that weren’t expected to and will lose a year of eligibility.
Derba said he will have to negotiate the non-conference games to avoid overusing his regulars and said lots of players are going to be getting opportunities to play.
His team continues to score runs, averaging nearly six runs per game, but it is allowing 8 ½.
“If we threw strikes, we’d be in first place,” said Derba.
He said his team will be okay.
“We have to figure out how to move on and go forward. We’ll be fine,” he said.
UMaine has two weeks before its next conference game which will help the injury situation.
It travels to Merrimack for a non-conference game at 4 p.m. on Wednesday and hosts Rider for a non-conference series on Friday (3 p.m.), Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (noon).