Coming into the series on four straight wins, Binghamton baseball played three games against UMBC this weekend, sweeping the Retrievers and extending its win streak to seven. Two out of three of the Bearcats’ wins over the weekend came as a result of walk-off home runs late in the game.

“Not every game was easy, [there were] close games, but everybody came together as a team,” said sophomore infielder Sean Sweeney. “We fought for each other, the guy behind us, the guy in front of us and we did what we had to do.”

The Retrievers (16-14, 5-4 AE) were first to get on the board in game one, putting up a single run in the second off a ground ball with the bases loaded. An RBI in the top of the fifth extended their lead to 2-0, but a two-RBI single from Sweeney tied the game in the bottom of the inning.

A three-run home run from UMBC quickly gave them back the lead in the sixth, but Binghamton (17-13, 9-3 AE) quickly answered with three more runs in the seventh, scoring thanks in part to RBIs from sophomore catcher Tommy Popoff and junior catcher Zach Anderson. With the game tied in extra innings, a solo homer from sophomore catcher Andrew Heppner gave Binghamton a walk-off victory by a score of 6-5 in the bottom of the 10th.

“It’s so big just to get the first-place team out of the way and move up in the leaderboard,” sophomore outfielder Matt Bolton said. “You want to be the scariest team in the league and that just proves it.”

Game two saw Binghamton quickly take the lead in the second thanks to an RBI single from senior infielder Mike Stellrecht. An RBI from sophomore first baseman Steven Kraus gave Binghamton a 2-0 lead in the third and two more runs in the fifth, thanks to an error and an RBI single from senior infielder Zack Kent, extending the Bearcat lead to 4-0.

A wild pitch in the top of the sixth gave the Retrievers their first run of the game and a two-run homer in the seventh brought them within one of the Binghamton lead. However, the Bearcats held UMBC scoreless to close out the game 4-3.

“We’re all just playing for each other right now,” Bolton said. “That’s all you really need. If you know you got the guy behind you, then you’re really unstoppable.”

The Bearcats were first to get on the board in game three after Bolton hit a triple and then scored due to a throwing error. An RBI single from Bolton in the fifth kicked off a three-run inning, allowing Binghamton to go up 4-0. UMBC had a breakout inning in the sixth, tying the game at 4-4, but Binghamton was quick to get back on top, with a sacrifice fly from Sweeney making it a 5-4 ballgame in the bottom of the inning. UMBC answered with a solo home run in the seventh to once again tie the game, but yet again the Bearcats retook the lead in the bottom of the inning.

In a monster eighth inning for the Bearcats, the team managed to score seven runs, earning a 16-5 mercy-rule win thanks to a walk-off homer from freshman infielder Caden Albright.

“I got myself into a good count to hit and had some good information from the teammates before me, and got a pitch that I liked and obviously put it on the fence,” Albright said.

Binghamton will head back on the road to take on Cornell in a one-game matchup on Tuesday, April 14. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Booth Field in Ithaca, New York.