FARMINGTON – A pair of two-run home runs in the fourth inning helped propel the University of Maine at Farmington baseball team to a 10-7 win over the University of Maine at Presque Isle in game two of the teams’ Tuesday doubleheader at Hippach Field, allowing the Beavers to a sweep over the Owls.
UMaine-Farmington (8-19, 6-6 NAC East) won the day’s first game, 3-1, in eight innings behind an eight-strikeout complete-game performance on the mound from starter Riley Bartell.
After UMaine-Presque Isle (6-25, 3-9 NAC East) forced extra innings with a single game-tying run in the sixth inning and a scoreless seventh, the Beavers’ Ryan Sargent got aboard with a leadoff single through the right side. Pinch runner Lucas Tuttle moved around the bases on a single and a sacrifice bunt, eventually scoring on Will Cauchon’s sac fly to right field to give UMaine-Farmington a 2-1 lead.
Troy Johnson plated an insurance run on the ensuing at bat with a base hit to left center, plating Tyler Lambert.
Bartell kept the Owls in check with a no-hitter through four innings, yielding his first hit of the day to UMPI on Nick Perfitt’s base hit to start off the fifth.
Lambert and Johnson each finished with two hits, with Johnson also getting credit for two runs batted in.
In game two, UMaine-Presque Isle’s seven-run uprising in the second inning on six hits and three UMF errors put the Owls in front, 7-2.
The Beavers narrowed the gap to 7-4 in the third inning on an RBI double from Johnson, followed by Derek Gendreau’s base hit that pushed Johnson across.
Two-run round-trippers by Sargent and Johnson in the fourth vaulted UMaine-Farmington into an 8-7 lead. A mammoth solo home run off the bat of Cauchon and a sac fly from Bartell later in the frame extended UMF’s advantage to 10-7.
Johnson finished the game 3-for-4 at the plate with three RBIs and two runs scored. Sargent also charted three RBIs.
Starter Aaron Goschke went five innings and picked up his second win of the season, while Will Harriman pitched the sixth and seventh innings to close out the win and earned his first collegiate save.
UMaine-Farmington baseball is scheduled to travel to Standish, Maine, on Thursday, April 28, for a pair of games against Saint Joseph’s College. First pitch in game one of the doubleheader is slated for 3 p.m.
