12-1 Maine Baseball defeats Bates 7-2

Maine baseball returned to the sanctuary of Mahaney Diamond on the Umaine campus after a weekend split with America East foe Binghamton. The Black Bears faces off against Division III Bates College. Maine entered the game 19-16 on the season and 4-3 in America East play. The game got off to a slow start thanks to the great pitching of Myckie Lugbauer (3.1 IP 3 hits 1 run 6 strikeouts) and the good fielding of the Bates players. Maine got their first hit of the game in the 2nd inning by freshman first baseman Tyler Patzalek. Center fielder Pat Murphy of Bates got them their hit of the game in the top of the 3rd but was stranded on base to end their inning. Freshman lead off 2nd basemen Mike Fransoso was walked with one out in the bottom on the 3rd inning. On the pitch Fransoso took off to steal 2nd base only to be gunned down by the strong arm of Bates catcher Gord Webb. Webb was the first successful catcher of the year to throw out the speedy Fransoso who was 13 for 13 on stolen bases when the game started tonight. Mercurio was walked shortly after Fransoso was thrown out, only to be followed by a monster triple from sophomore outfielder Taylor Anderson which drove Mercurio home for the first run on the game. Bates was up to the challenge answering back in the 4th inning tying the game at 1-1.
Entering the bottom of the 5th the game was still deadlocked at 1-1. As is to be deja vu, Mercurio gets walked and there Taylor Lewis was again with a huge triple to score Mercurio once again. Until the bottom of the 6th, Taylor Lewis was the only Black Bear swinging his bat. The rest of the Black Bears decided to come out of hibernation with a booming 5 run inning. Lugbauer and Fransoso contributed singles and once again Taylor Lewis came up with the big bat hitting a 3RBI double. In the top of the 7th the Black Bears called upon the "Big Righty" Matt Jebb to shut down the Bates batters. Jebbs' first pitch was crushed opposite field down the first base line in to right fielder George Tager's corner, as the runner was approaching 2nd base Tager came up firing to hit the cut off man Fransoso. A perfect throw from Tager was followed by a frozen rope to 3rd base off the hand of Fransoso to nail the runner sliding head first into 3rd base. I hope ESPN saw that one. Bates chipped in one more run in the 8th inning to make it 7-2 Maine, and after a 1-2-3 top of the 9th that's how the game would end. Moving our team to 20-16 overall and 5-1 at home for the year. The University of Maine's baseball team returns to action on Saturday April 24th at 1:00pm to face America East rival Hartford.