Albany dashes UMaine baseball team’s tourney hopes with 4-3 win

ORONO –  It was a memorable day for veteran University of Albany baseball coach Jon Mueller and his Great Danes and a forgettable one for the University of Maine.

Albany rallied for single runs in the eighth and ninth innings and lefty Cregg Scherrer, who came into the game with just 27 ⅔ innings pitched on the season, tossed a nine-hit complete game as the Great Danes beat UMaine 4-3, ending the Black Bears’ America East tournament aspirations.

UMaine is the first team since Binghamton in 2015 to miss the playoffs after winning the tournament the previous year.

Mueller, who is in his 25th year at Albany, earned his 500th career win on his son’s 18th birthday.

“And I live in Stillwater, New York and we take Stillwater Avenue to get here,” said a beaming Mueller. “I love coming up here.”

Albany, which was 3-11 in the conference at one time, wound up 10-13 and will make the tourney for the first time in three years. It is 15-33-1 overall.

UMaine finished at 8-15 in the conference and 12-37 overall. It is the fewest wins since the 1969 team went 12-12.

The University of Maine’s injury-depleted pitching staff has had bullpen issues all season long that continued on Saturday.

But the bats didn’t come through either as the Black Bears hit into three double plays.

The Black Bears also committed three errors while the Great Danes played errorless ball.

“We aren’t a good team. We finished exactly where we should have,” said UMaine coach Nick Derba. “We shouldn’t have made the playoffs. Albany was better than us.”

The Great Danes jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Luke Myers hit a leadoff single, stole second, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Luke Filippi’s double to left that one-hopped the fence.

The Great Danes extended the lead with an unearned run in the third when Myers reached on an infield single and scored on a throwing error by Jeph Hadson-Taylor.

Hadson-Taylor fielded a Ryan Ferremi grounder and tried to get the force out at second but fired the ball past shortstop Gonzalez into foul territory.

UMaine rallied to take a 3-2 lead with single runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings.

Jeremiah Jenkins belted his 22nd homer of the season, a missile to right field, to make it 2-1 in the third.

Jonathan Gonzalez’s triple off the fence in left center field and Hadson-Taylor’s sacrifice fly tied it in the fifth and Nick White’s seventh homer of the season, an opposite-field shot to left, gave UMaine a 3-2 lead.

Freshman pitcher Jason Krieger turned in a strong performance, allowing just one earned run over seven innings.

But the Great Danes tied it against reliever Ryan Scott in the eighth on Filippi’s double and Levi McAllister’s RBI single.

The Great Danes loaded the bases with one out but Marshall Smaracko came on and pitched out of the jam.

However, in the ninth, Smaracko hit Ryan Ferremi with a pitch to open the inning. Will Binder poked a single into center and, one out later, Jared Toby ripped a run-scoring single to center.

“He threw me a hard slider-cutter and it leaked out over the middle of the plate onto the barrel (of the bat),” said Toby.

Redshirt senior Scherrer’s win was his first of the season in three decisions. He picked up a save in Friday’s 6-3 win over UMaine with one inning of scoreless relief. He entered the game with two on and no outs and the tying run at the plate.

“I knew it was make or break for our season,” said Scherrer, who featured a fastball, curve and change-up. “I tried to keep it close as long as I could. Those double plays were huge. They helped keep my pitch count down.”

He threw 107 pitches of which 71 were strikes.

“When he’s going like that, he’s a professional pitcher,” said Mueller. “That was a masterpiece.”

UMaine went 0-for-10 with men on base.

“We fought hard today but when you don’t get timely hits and your defense isn’t there, it will come back to bite you,” said UMaine junior first baseman Jenkins.