There isn’t a great margin for error for the University of Maine baseball team.
The Black Bears go into their three-game America East series at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County — a rematch of last year’s tournament finalists — only two games behind first-place Hartford in the league standings. But UMaine is a mere 1 1/2 games in front of last-place Binghamton.
The top six teams in the seven-team league qualify for the America East Baseball Championship which will be held May 23-27 at UMaine’s Mahaney Diamond for the first time in 14 years. The top two teams in the regular-season standings earn a first-round bye.
“Everything is really tight. We’ve got to start winning series,” said UMaine head coach Nick Derba. “If we win eight or 10 of our last 12 games, we’ll be in very good position to finish in one of the top two spots.”
Parity again reigns in America East.
Hartford leads the league with its 8-4 conference record. UMass Lowell is 8-7, defending tournament champ UMBC and UMaine are both 6-6, Stony Brook and Albany are each 7-8 and Binghamton, last year’s regular-season champion, is 6-9.
There are four weekends of conference games remaining and UMaine has 12 conference games left.
The Black Bears have lost three of their four series, going 1-2 in each, and swept a three-game home set from Albany.
Derba is convinced UMaine is capable of catching fire down the stretch and winning the tournament despite their inconsistent play so far this season.
The pitching staff has been solid, having held America East opponents to two runs or less in seven of 12 games in which UMaine is 5-2. The Black Bears have allowed four runs in two other games.
But the offense has been spotty, scoring two runs or fewer in three of the last six games.
UMaine has lost 1-0 games to Hartford and UMass Lowell, the latter of which featured a six-inning no-hitter by senior pitcher John Arel.
“We’ve got to get the bats hot,” said Derba. “The pitchers have been keeping us in games.
“Everybody just needs to do their jobs. They’ve got to take care of their roles,” said Derba.
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