A four-game non-conference sweep and some favorable outcomes around the America East helped the Binghamton University baseball team extend its win streak to nine games and move into second place in the AE this weekend.
The Bearcats (19-21, 7-5 AE) took a pair of doubleheaders from the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders (3-38) in a home-and-home series. Binghamton won 7-1 and 15-5 at Varsity Field in Vestal on Saturday, and then 3-2 and 4-1 at NJIT’s home Riverfront Stadium in Newark, N.J., on Sunday.
Though BU head coach Tim Sinicki is pleased with the win streak, it’s the fact that the Bearcats have been able to win tight games that has him most pleased.
“There have been a lot of close games,” he said. “Looking back to earlier in the year, losing some of those games, I’d like to think that we’ve learned some things over the course of the past 40 games or so.”
Binghamton, which entered the weekend in third place behind Stony Brook and Hartford, took over second place by virtue of Hartford’s three losses to Stony Brook in four games. Three weeks ago, after one week of conference play, Binghamton was in last place. Its comeback exemplifies how evenly matched the AE has been.
“I think if you go back to some things I said earlier in the year, the conference is wide open, very balanced,” Sinicki said. “Nothing really surprised me that’s going on in the conference. It’s shaping up the way I thought it would be: Stony Brook’s the team to beat, No. 2 through 7 are wide open.”
Senior Bearcats ace and captain Zach Groh followed some of the scores from around the AE on Friday night, before turning in a gem in the opening game of the series on Saturday.
“The first day [of conference play] on Friday, every team that we thought would win went the other way,” Groh said. “We had expectations that this team’s gonna win, but yet every team that we thought’d win lost.”
On the mound the next day, Groh threw a complete game six-hitter, striking out five and walking just one to even his record at 3-3. His performance has helped the team get on the same page.
“Now we’re kind of doing everything right instead of early on: when we had the pitching the offense wasn’t there, and then we had the offense and the pitching wasn’t there,” Groh said. “Now we’re pretty even with everything.”
The second game, a slugfest, featured 25 hits. Binghamton broke a 4-4 tie in the fifth inning with five runs, and then added another six runs in the sixth. Junior shortstop Kyle Klee and freshman right fielder Pete Bregartner both went 3-for-4 with three RBI. Sophomore left fielder Joe Charron, who drove in two, is second on the team with 31 RBI, behind junior first baseman Ryan Holley (33), who stole the show Sunday.
Holley, who’s sixth on the team with a .271 average, drove in all three of BU’s runs on two-out hits in Sunday’s opener. He singled in the first to put the Bearcats up 1-0, hit a two-run double to tie the game at 2 in the fifth, and knocked in the go-ahead run with a single in the seventh.
“Holley’s been unbelievable,” Sinicki said. “Even when he’s not hitting well he’s a tremendous value to the team because of his defense.”
Senior captain Ryan James set up the winning run with a one-out single. He stole second and took third on an error at third base. The win gave Murphy Smith his team-high fourth win. Smith threw six innings of one-run, six-hit ball. He struck out eight and walked none.
In game two, Senior southpaw Gio Yannuzzi followed Murphy’s performance with six shutout innings. He allowed seven hits while striking out four and walking one. James hit a solo homer, his third of the season, in the seventh.
Junior closer Greg Lane, who leads the team with a 1.42 ERA, earned two saves on the day. He has seven on the season, a program record for Division I play.
The Bearcats have a chance to extend their win streak to 10 before resuming conference play at Vermont next weekend, against Le Moyne (21-19) at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Varsity Field. The Bearcats defeated the Dolphins 12-10 last Wednesday in Syracuse.
“If we can keep the same momentum we have, that’d be perfect,” Groh said.