University of Southern Maine baseball Coach Ed Flaherty notched his 700th win when the Huskies beat Calvin College 21-5 on Wednesday to wrap up a 9-0 trip in Arizona.

Flaherty, a 1976 graduate of Maine, has an overall record of 700-302-3 at USM.

The Huskies are 8-1 out of the gate this year, and haven't dropped a game since Game 2 of a doubleheader on opening day.

USM's latest win came Monday via a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth by Chris Burleson, a former Deering standout.

Burleson's one-out dinger broke a 6-6 tie to give the Huskies a 7-6 win.

The Maine baseball team will play it's home opener Saturday at 1 p.m. against Sacred Heart in the newly resurfaced Mahaney Diamond.

That's quite an early start for a team that last year got stuck playing some "home games" in Connecticut to find a dry playing surface.

The field looks awfully nice -- all turf except for the pitchers mound which is dirt.

They even have fake lawn mower stripes in the green part.

With just a year left to his college playing career Mark Socoby left the University of Maine basketball team for personal reasons.

There was significant chatter for a few days before he confirmed his plan to move on yesterday.

Socoby said he is leaving Maine to pursue a Division I transfer.

He cited no malcontent with the program or Coach Ted Woodward.

Other Maine news:

• Athletic Director Blake James confirmed he's a semifinalist for the AD position at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Came upon an interesting story in the Bowdoin College student newspaper the other day.

According to the story there are these $400 swimsuits made of thick material that actually increase a swimmer's buoyancy that caused a bit of a stir at the NESCAC meet.

Speedo makes one of these suits, the LZR, and claims it is the world's fastest swimsuit.

After going 0-28 to start the season last year the University of Maine softball team is off to a 15-11 start and was on a 10-game winning streak until this afternoon.

Maine beat Sacred Heart this morning 1-0 then lost 3-2 to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in Game 2 of a doubleheader.

The team's latest wins:
Tuesday: 6-4 over Penn
Tuesday: 10-4 over Bryant
Wednesday: 1-0 over Sacred Heart

The ink's not dry on this yet, but Maine has scored running back/linebacker Shawn Bodtmann out of West Scranton, Pa. for next season.

He's 6-foot-5, 205 pounds and can run the 40 in 4.58 seconds.

Nebraska apparently dropped a scholarship offer to Bodtmann in late January, a week before the national signing period.

Unclear exactly why this happened, but this story in the Times Tribune mentions a production drop in his senior season from an injury.

It's that time again.

The America East Championships get underway on Friday when No. 8 Maine faces No. 9 Hartford at 7 p.m. at the University of Albany.

The winner of the first round contest will face top-seeded Binghamton in the quarterfinals Saturday at 7 p.m.

USM women: The 22-6 Huskies will make their 15th consecutive appearance with a 4 p.m. game Friday against Emmanuel College (21-7) at the campus of Amherst College in Amherst, Mass.