The University of Maine at Presque Isle baseball team takes a 6-19 record into its final four games of the season this weekend.
The Owls will take on Lesley University of Cambridge, Mass. for a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. and another twinbill Sunday beginning at noon at the University of Maine at Orono.
UMPI split its final two games with Newbury College Sunday afternoon, taking game one, 6-5, in exciting, walk-off fashion before dropping the finale, 15-5. The games were played at UM-Orono.
Matt Curry of Caribou was the winning pitcher in the opener and made it possible by driving in the tie-breaking run with single in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Down 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh, the Owls mounted their finest comeback of the season. Matt Cauchon was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a slow roller to short by Adam Begos. A passed ball moved Cauchon to third before Mitch Thayer singled up the middle to tie the game. Austin Bernier pinch ran for Thayer and stole second before Curry drove a ball into the left-center field gap to plate Bernier for the game-winning run.
Curry showed plenty of moxie on the mound by getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the second inning and only allowing one run in a precarious sixth inning that saw the Nighthawks smack a pair of doubles. Begos and Soloman Fast each collected two hits in the game for UMPI.
In game two, Newbury bounced back by racking up 14 hits and taking advantage of six Owl errors in the easy victory.
Begos and Fast again were the hitting leaders for UMPI with two hits and an RBI each. Saul Nunez of Mapleton was tagged with the loss on the mound as he failed to get out of the second inning.
The previous day, Owl starters Andrew Bartlett and Ghaz Sailors pitched well, but errors and a punchless offensive attack allowed the visiting Newbury Nighthawks to sweep the two games by scores of 8-1 and 9-0.
Newbury put seven runs on the board in the first inning to cruise in the opener. The Owls started poorly, with three first-inning infield errors allowing the Nighthawks to score multiple unearned runs. After the Newbury fireworks had ended in the first, Bartlett pitched extremely well by allowing only three hits to the remaining 22 hitters he faced.
Sailors started the second game and pitched well for a few innings before Newbury rallied in the middle innings to win.
Last Wednesday, UMPI split a doubleheader with Plymouth State, losing game one 7-6 and winning the second game, 4-3.
