Late-inning heroics once again lifted the Binghamton University baseball team as it used a three-run eighth inning to beat Marist College, 8-5, on Tuesday.
The win was the 12th in 14 games for the Bearcats (21-15, 8-2 America East) and extended its winning streak to five games. Marist fell to 22-20 on the year. The game also marked the end of non-conference play for Binghamton, as its final 12 regular season games are scheduled against conference opponents.
“Momentum and confidence and character, the belief in each other, I think all those things are important, and I think that’s what a team has when it’s playing well and has that confidence going down the stretch,” said Bearcats head coach Tim Sinicki.
The Bearcats sent Walker McKinven, a redshirt freshman coming off Tommy John surgery last year, out to the mound on Sunday, and he received immediate support from his offense. After a pair of singles and a stolen base to open up the bottom of the first inning, senior Kyle Klee came to the plate and hit a single to bring in both runners. Hot-hitting sophomore Corey Taylor, who entered the day as the conference leader in RBIs with 37, homered to bring the lead up to 4-0.
The Red Foxes loaded the bases with two outs in the third inning against McKinven. Senior Brian McDonough came through for Marist, hitting a two-run single. McKinven forced a ground ball to end the inning and the threat. He went four innings and gave up two runs, but maintained the lead.
The Bearcats got one in the fifth, getting an RBI double from Taylor to bring the lead up to 5-2. Freshman Alex Adami, who relieved McKinven, would give one back in the next inning. The unearned run scored after a single, a passed ball and an RBI-single. After allowing a run to Marist in the next inning, sophomore Morgan Smith gave up a leadoff triple in the seventh. The run would come around to score on a single from the next batter, tying the game.
Binghamton once again found itself in a tight game in the late innings. As has been the case lately, the Bearcats would find a way, this time with some help from the Red Foxes. Junior Joe Charron started the eighth inning with a single and junior Matt Simone attempted to bunt him over. However, on errors from both the catcher and the pitcher, Charron and Simone were not only safe, but were able to advance to second and third.
Sophomore catcher C.J. Lukaszewski, who is hitting .347 on the season, was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out. Freshman Eric Secor, playing in just his sixth game of the year, came up next with a chance to break the tie. He was able to make the most of his opportunity, hitting a go-ahead three-run double to give the Bearcats an 8-5 lead. It was Secor’s second double on the year and gave him a season total of four RBIs. Morgan Smith put men on second and third with two outs, but got the flyout to end the game.
“You try to have your guys believe in themselves and believe in each other,” Sinicki said. “I think you’ll learn from your experiences and hope that this time of year is when you’ve taken the experiences and developed into a ball club that shows some character and some resiliency, and that’s kind of how we’re playing right now.”
Having pitched two freshmen and a sophomore in the game, Sinicki was especially proud of his young hurlers after the game.
“[Walter McKinven] has shown the ability to command the strike zone as the year has gone on, more so than he did early in the season,” he said. “Alex has done a good job for us as well, especially his past three or four outings. Those few guys are the young pitchers I think have done a particularly good job, and we’re really going to need them down the stretch to get some big outs for us here in the last part of the season.”
The team was still without redshirted sophomore leadoff man Henry Dunn for the game. Dunn has been dealing with trouble with his hamstring and a hyperextended knee. Coach Sinicki said that Dunn feels “good, but not great yet,” and hopes he will be able to play this weekend.
With the non-conference schedule over, the Bearcats will be bearing down for the stretch run in an attempt to win the conference. Despite not having played a conference game since April 19, the Bearcats have moved up into first place in the conference as the University of Maine dropped to 9-3 in conference play. Binghamton will begin its efforts this weekend at UMBC (9-28, 4-12 AE).
The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader on both Saturday and Sunday, with Game 1 on each day scheduled to begin at at 1 p.m.