Maine-Farmington 9, Bates 6
at Lewiston, Maine

UMF SWEEPS SEASON SERIES WITH BATES, 9-6

LEWISTON, Maine —The visiting University of Maine-Farmington Beavers (12-16) survived four solo home runs by the host Bates College Bobcats (2-25) and an injury to their starting pitcher to capture a 9-6 non-conference baseball victory today.

UMF took an early 4-0 lead in the second on the strength of a leadoff single by senior 1B Mike Fullerton (Portland, Maine), back-to-back walks and a grand-slam home run by sophomore 2B Tom Ventura (Saco, Maine). A Bates error and Ventura's fifth RBI of the day off Bates starter Ben Megrian (Newton, Mass.) gave UMF a 6-0 lead in the top of the third. With one out and a runner on second in Bates' half of the third inning, Bobcat senior Ben Bines (Lexington, Mass.) lined a shot that ricocheted off UMF starter Willie Walton's face. Walton was not badly hurt, but he did have to leave the game. UMF added three more in the fourth and fifth innings as senior SS Jeff Bird (Standish, Maine) knocked in all three. All together, the UMF middle infield of Ventura and Bird combined went 6-10 with eight RBI.

Bates had some success against rookie reliever Zach Reed (Lincoln, Maine) as the Bobcats tagged him for solo runs in the fourth on junior DH John Merriman's (Clinton, Mass.) RBI single and junior C Ben Donaldson's (Lamoine, Maine) solo homer, his first of the year. Solo shots by Bines, his sixth, and senior 1B Matt Pound (Santa Fe, N.M.), his fourth, cut the UMF lead to 9-4 in the seventh. Rookie 2B Jeff Shouldice (Pittsfield, Mass.) hit his first career round-tripper in the eighth and Bines added an RBI triple to cut the lead to 9-6, but Bates could not get any closer as Reed hung on for the win and Fullerton pitched the ninth to earn the save.

UMF (12-16)    042 120 000 -  9 15 0
Bates (2-25)   000 110 220 -  6 16 1

BAT: Ben Megrian, Shane Delaney (3), Billy Karz (8)
and Ben Donaldson.
UMF: Willie Walton, Zach Reed (3), Mike Fullerton (9)
and Jason Cushman.
W: Reed (n/a) L: Megrian (0-7) S: Fullerton (n/a).

2B: BAT, Nate Maxwell. UMF, Keith Leblanc Fullerton.
3B: BAT, Ben Bines. 
HR: BAT, Bines (6), Matt Pound (4), Ben Donaldson (1),
Jeff Shouldice (1). UMF, Tom Ventura.
Multiple hitters: BAT, Bines 3, Pound 3, Maxwell, Rob
Maguire, Jason Pinkham. UMF, Jeff Bird 3, Dan Currier 3,
Ventura 3, Fullerton, Leblanc.