By Trey McCurry.
TCI continues our preseason baseball coverage by taking a brief look at Maine. Stay tuned to TCI throughout the preseason as we continue breakdown the 2015 roster and 2015 opponents as we lead up to Opening Day on February 13th.
Head Coach Steve Trimper, in his 10th season as head coach at Maine, brings his Black Bears to Tigertown for the second straight season and third time in four years. Oddly enough, all three series have occurred on the second weekend of the season. A big reason for the common meetings is Coach Jack Leggett, who was an all-star performer in both baseball and football at Maine in the 1970s, including leading the Black Bears (as a team captain) to the College World Series in 1976.
Maine, members of the America East Conference, finished 24-29 (10-11, 5th place in the America East) in 2014. The Black Bears played several games against ACC teams last season, dropping two of three games at Miami (FL) to open last season, being swept the following weekend in Clemson, and then wrapping up with a win over Boston College in late May. Maine also played 11 games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament, going 2-9 with the previous mentioned series with Miami (FL) and Clemson, a single loss to North Dakota State, and dropping three of four games to Binghamton.
The Black Bears welcome back 17 players from last year’s squad, with 12 position players returning and eight pitchers (including three two-way players) coming back. Two of the returners earned America East honors last season as Scott Heath pulled off a rare feat by earning First Team honors as a DH and Second Team honors at first base while Jeff Gelinas was named to the All-Rookie team as a pitcher.
2014 stats for Maine Returners:
| Hitting |
AVG |
G-S |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
K |
SB |
| Scott Heath |
.361 |
43-41 |
155 |
23 |
56 |
14 |
2 |
4 |
29 |
13 |
19 |
0-0 |
| Brian Doran |
.314 |
53-53 |
191 |
27 |
60 |
15 |
3 |
0 |
20 |
11 |
35 |
4-7 |
| Sam Balzano |
.289 |
50-40 |
159 |
28 |
46 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
16 |
14 |
12-16 |
| Lou Della Fera |
.286 |
19-0 |
14 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0-0 |
| Steven Adam |
.256 |
30-22 |
78 |
5 |
20 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
9 |
17 |
2-6 |
| Shane Bussey |
.250 |
35-35 |
124 |
18 |
31 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
16 |
30 |
4-5 |
| Luke Morrill |
.250 |
14-12 |
44 |
7 |
11 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
12 |
5 |
9 |
0-2 |
| Brenden Geary |
.220 |
28-9 |
50 |
4 |
11 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
4 |
12 |
0-0 |
| Jake Osborne |
.220 |
22-8 |
41 |
3 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
4 |
8 |
2-3 |
| Jonathan Salcedo |
.214 |
52-46 |
126 |
22 |
27 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
15 |
20 |
37 |
0-0 |
| Pat Coughlin |
.171 |
20-7 |
35 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
15 |
0-0 |
| Jeff Gelinas |
.167 |
4-1 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0-0 |
| Pitching |
ERA |
G-S |
W-L |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
OBA |
| Charlie Butler % |
2.54 |
21-1 |
1-5 |
39.0 |
35 |
20 |
11 |
15 |
26 |
.233 |
| Jacob Gosselin-Deschesne ^ |
2.81 |
13-1 |
1-2 |
32.0 |
37 |
15 |
10 |
11 |
17 |
.298 |
| Jeff Gelinas * |
3.86 |
17-8 |
3-4 |
51.1 |
47 |
30 |
22 |
24 |
35 |
.244 |
| Scott Heath * |
4.86 |
11-9 |
3-3 |
50.0 |
59 |
35 |
27 |
18 |
37 |
.299 |
| Luke Morrill |
5.23 |
8-3 |
0-1 |
20.2 |
25 |
13 |
12 |
10 |
14 |
.298 |
| Logan Fullmer |
6.59 |
13-3 |
3-1 |
27.1 |
45 |
25 |
20 |
9 |
20 |
.372 |
| Jake Marks |
8.84 |
12-4 |
0-2 |
18.1 |
28 |
22 |
18 |
15 |
10 |
.350 |
| Chris Piteo |
13.50 |
3-0 |
0-0 |
2.0 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
.250 |
% – had five saves. ^ – had two saves. * – had one save.