Corey Taylor’s grounder to short slipped between the legs of Maryland-Baltimore County shortstop Rich Conlon in the rain Friday afternoon at Varsity Field, giving the Binghamton University baseball team its first America East victory of the season and the first of three wins in a four-game series over UMBC on the weekend, 9-8.
Conlon’s error with one out in the 10th inning allowing BU catcher C.J. Lukaszewski to score from second without a play at the plate, completing a comeback that began with the host Bearcats trailing 8-5 entering the bottom of the ninth.
“I’ll take it,” said Taylor, who went 3-for-5 and drove in two. “The guys did a great job of coming back. A lot of the older guys really stepped up and led us through practice this week and told us we were better than [last weekend].”
Playing at home for the first time this season, Binghamton (10-20, 3-5 AE) climbed to the middle of the standings after entering the weekend in last place.
The Bearcats split a doubleheader with UMBC on Saturday, taking the opener 13-2 before falling 9-4. Sunday’s game moved to NYSEG Stadium, home of the Binghamton Mets, where the Bearcats’ 10-8 series-clinching win was televised on Time Warner Sports.
“Winning the series is big, it all comes down to tiebreakers at the end,” said BU head coach Tim Sinicki. “Head to head’s your first tiebreak, and anytime you can have that over an opponent, that helps you out.”
Binghamton was swept in four games by the Stony Brook Seawolves to open conference play from April 5 to 6. But Stony Brook dropped three of four to Hartford over the weekend, falling into third place from first as the Bearcats moved to fifth.
“We’re back in it,” said freshman outfielder Pete Bregartner, who extended his hit streak to 14 games with a double in his final at-bat Sunday. He went 9-for-18 in the series and leads the team with a .349 average.
For the pitching-thin Golden Retrievers (10-19, 2-6), their three losses were a series of given-away opportunities.
“Walks, hit batters, turning over the lineup; it’s too many freebies,” said UMBC head coach Steve Jancuska. Redshirt freshman starting pitcher Austin Drewyer hit five batters on Sunday.
BU junior left-hander Jeff Dennis (2-4, 5.05) allowed two runs on five hits over seven innings in the first game on Saturday. BU pulled away with five runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings.
Sophomore left fielder Joe Charron and junior transfer first baseman Ryan Holley each hit a two-run home run. Charron is tied for second in the conference with six long balls, while Holley is tied for second on the team with three.
In game two, BU starter Gio Yannuzzi (0-4, 6.75) allowed seven earned runs on as many hits in less than four innings to give UMBC an early insurmountable lead. UMBC senior second baseman Steve Russo hit a three-run homer off Yannuzzi as part of the Golden Retrievers’ seven-run fourth inning.
Sunday’s game, played in front of 240 fans, featured 14 combined runs scored over the fourth, fifth and six innings, spanning four lead changes.
Binghamton took a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth but UMBC scored five runs off BU starter Murphy Smith (2-3, 4.87) the next inning.
“[Smith’s] pitch count was low, he had the one rough inning and I didn’t think it was all his fault,” said Sinicki, a former collegiate starting pitcher. “I guess one of my flaws probably is having too much confidence in our starting pitchers, and I guess that stems from what I did [when I played].”
The Bearcats overcame the 7-4 deficit with a five-spot of their own in the sixth. Junior shortstop Kyle Klee put Binghamton ahead for good with a one-out, two-run double down the left-field line.
Junior right-hander Greg Lane (2-2, 1.53) earned his third save of the season after allowing one run on two hits in the ninth.
Lane was also instrumental Friday, when he retired the Golden Retrievers in order in the top of the 10th after BU had tied the game at 8 in the bottom of the ninth. The win was Lane’s second of the season. He has taken over the closer’s job from senior Khalid Afify, who was hurt earlier in the year.
“I’m really comfortable right now, I wouldn’t want any other role,” Lane said. “It’s what I wanted, it’s what I worked for.”
The Bearcats were able to get Lane the ball both days thanks to two freshman relievers. Morgan Smith (0-0, 3.86) allowed two runs in 3 1/3 innings Friday and James Giulietti (1-2, 7.71) threw two innings of one-hit ball Sunday to bridge the middle innings.
Smith entered in relief of BU’s No. 1 pitcher, Zach Groh (2-3, 5.70), whose outing, the second in a row in which he looked lost, was the only real blemish on the weekend. Groh allowed five earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out six but allowed six hits and walked three.
“I’ve got to figure it out,” Groh said. “I’m not doing what I want to right now, I don’t know what to do. I’m going to look back at it, look at the book. I have no idea what it is.”
In his previous start, Groh allowed seven runs on nine hits over seven innings against Stony Brook.
“The only thing that I think honestly is that he’s probably trying to do too much,” Sinicki said. “He’s probably trying to be more than he’s capable of being. He just has to kind of get back to being the person that he is, and that’s the one that’s so good for us the last couple of years.”
Notes: Former Bearcats catcher Pat Haughie served as the color man alongside Roger Neel for Sunday’s telecast on Time Warner Sports.