Pitching and defense may win championships, but offense is what carried the Binghamton University baseball team over the weekend. The Bearcats put up a staggering 47 runs in a three-game sweep of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

With the wins, Binghamton (16-17, 7-3 America East) has moved up into a tie with the University of Maine for first place in the conference standings. The team is on a five-game win streak and has won 10 of its last 13 games, scoring in double digits in each of the last five contests.

The weekend series was originally scheduled to be played in Maryland, but weather issues forced a change of venue just a few days prior. The late switch didn’t harm the Bearcats, though. Binghamton outscored the Retrievers 47-13 over the three games, with each of its starting pitchers throwing at least six innings.

The first game featured Bearcat ace James Giulietti. The left-handed junior had to deal with a pair of errors from shortstop Jeff Abrams in the first inning and allowed an unearned run, but was solid from that point on. He went the full seven innings, allowing no earned runs and just six singles while striking out seven to pick up his fifth win of the year and first America East Pitcher of the Week honors. In America East play, Giulietti has a 0.43 ERA with 17 strikeouts and no walks.

The offense backed Giulietti up. The team responded to the first-inning run by UMBC with three of its own in the bottom of the inning. No Bearcat homered in the game, but seven players doubled in the 10-1 win. Junior Corey Taylor went 3-for-4 with three RBI and a stolen base, while fellow junior Henry Dunn scored three times and doubled twice.

“I think it’s exactly what you look for out of your No. 1 starter,” BU head coach Tim Sinicki said. “You want a guy out there who you feel like, even if the offense isn’t swinging it that day, or if you’re going up against a good pitcher on the other team, he’s going to give you a good chance to be in the ball game.”

Game 2 on Saturday was an even bigger win for Binghamton. A nine-run third inning and six-run sixth keyed a 20-5 win for the Bearcats. The third inning featured eight BU hits, while the Retrievers committed two errors and threw three wild pitches. The sixth inning included a leadoff home run by Dunn and a grand slam by Jeff Skelhorne-Gross. The Retrievers committed six errors in the game.

Freshman Dave Ciocchi was 4-for-6 with an RBI for the game. BU stole four bases, and every starter had at least one hit and one RBI.

Freshman Jay Lynch was the beneficiary of the offensive outburst. He went six innings, allowing five runs, all of which were scored off two home runs. He struck out six and walked none. Sinicki said that much of Lynch’s issues this year have come from giving up home runs, something he says is typical of a freshman pitcher. Matt Simone — a first baseman who has been used as a relief pitcher of late — entered in the ninth and struck out all three batters to end the game.

The final game on Sunday was delayed due to rain, but that didn’t slow down the BU offense in Binghamton’s 17-7 win. This time the game started out close, with the teams tied at one entering the bottom of the third. But six runs in the bottom of the inning and five more in the bottom of the fourth helped seal the win. Binghamton had three home runs and stole six bases in the game. A hitless day by Joel Stubbs prevented BU from having three straight games where every starter had at least one hit. Over the last five games, only three Binghamton batters have gone hitless.

“[We] did a good job, obviously, swinging the bats and putting pressure on them,” Sinicki said. “The ability to put pressure on a defense continually and get into teams’ bullpens has kind of been to our advantage when we’re able to do that.”

Sophomore Mike Augliera provided Binghamton with another good start, going six innings while giving up just three hits and one run. He struck out five and, like Giulietti and Lynch the day before, didn’t allow a walk. After struggling early in the year, Augliera is 2-1 in conference play with a 2.14 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 21 innings.

Binghamton was up 14-1 entering the eighth inning, but junior Zach Juliano allowed six runs to cut it to 14-7. A three-run bottom of the inning brought it to the final score.

For his efforts, Henry Dunn was named America East Player of the Week, just the second Bearcat to do so this year and first since Week 1. Dunn went 6-for-13 with four RBI and eight runs in the weekend series. He also hit a home run and stole two bases.

While Sinicki is proud of what his team did over the weekend, he knows that it has to be taken in the context of the full season.

“I think we went into the weekend thinking that we were, at least on paper, the better team and that, if we played well, we should be in a position to win all three games,” Sinicki said. “And I’m glad our guys took care of business that way. So for us, really, after the game ended [Sunday] we just kind of turned the page and moved on to the next games.”

Binghamton is set to face Cornell University at home tomorrow in a non-conference game. First pitch is set for 3:30 p.m.