The endings are eerily similar.

For a second consecutive season, the Binghamton University baseball team captured an America East regular season championship before falling two wins short of the America East tournament title.

But unlike last year, the 2008 Bearcats (29-27) weren’t supposed to win it all. With most regulars graduated as a part of one of the greatest senior classes in program history, to expect a year of rebuilding wouldn’t have been unreasonable. And the way this season started — with four straight losses to open conference play and a 7-19 record — didn’t help dispel that notion.

Then the freshmen stepped up, senior ace Zach Groh got straightened out and junior southpaw Jeff Dennis was dominant enough to be drafted by the Oakland Athletics. The Bearcats went 20-6 overall and 15-4 in conference play to close out the regular season.

Binghamton may have missed out on a tournament title again, but to come on so strong so quickly with such a young team was no easy feat, and something that lessened any bitter taste head coach Tim Sinicki may have had.

“I think [the season] was absolutely a success,” he said. “I just feel like we played really well for the last 30-plus games of the year. We developed some guys during the course of that stretch, we played well at the right times. To be able to win back-to-back conference championships with two entirely different teams is very satisfying, and we made it once again to the championship game.”

Though the Bearcats were the top-seeded team, the AE tournament was held in Farmingdale because BU does not yet have a lighted stadium. Binghamton edged No. 4 Vermont (27-24), 4-1, in the opening game of the series on May 22. Groh struck out 10 in 7 1/3 innings in his final start as a Bearcat.

But the next day’s opponent was the second-seeded Stony Brook Seawolves (34-24), the team that was picked as the conference’s best in the preseason coaches poll and then swept Binghamton in a four-game set to open AE play.

Dennis, in what could prove his final start as a Bearcat after being drafted in the 40th round, allowed SBU just one hit over the first seven innings. In the top of the eighth, freshman center fielder Corey Taylor tripled with one out. Another freshman, Pete Bregartner, who finished with a team-high .319 average, followed with a walk. Senior captain Ryan James was unable to hit a sacrifice fly and instead grounded to SBU third baseman Stephen Marino, who cut down Taylor at the plate on a bang-bang play.

“At the risk of them turning two, we had to send Taylor home to avoid the double play,” Sinicki said.

A wild pitch put two in scoring position for sophomore left fielder Joe Charron, the team’s home run leader for the last two seasons, but he struck out.

Stony Brook went up 1-0 in the bottom of the inning on a wild pitch by Dennis. A single and an error by freshman catcher Jeff Skelhorne-Gross had put a runner on third with no out. The Bearcats went down in order in the ninth to enter the loser’s bracket.

“[Dennis is] great. He’s in control of the game, he’s in command of his pitches and he’s pounding the strike zone, knowing that you got to be perfect because you’re locked up in a 0-0 game, and he made a mistake,” Sinicki said.

Behind sophomore starter Murphy Smith, Binghamton again handled Vermont Saturday, winning 4-0 to set up a rematch with Stony Brook later that day. Binghamton would have needed two consecutive wins over the Seawolves to win the championship, but were unable to get even one. They fell behind 4-0 in the third and finished with just five hits as Mike Errigo went the distance for SBU in a 5-0 win that clinched the title.

“Once they scored, that took the wind out of our sails,” Sinicki said. “We started to feel like weren’t in a position for come back at that point.”

To fall just short again was painful, particularly for those who won’t get another chance at a title with BU.

“It’s upsetting ‘cause you can compare it to last year,” James said. “Now to go through it twice, to know that especially it’s the end for me, it’s pretty brutal, you know?”

But at the same time, what the Bearcats accomplished this season is still laudable. And next year, with James the only position player who will graduate, there won’t be nearly as many doubts as there were at this year’s opening.

“Just the fact that we stepped up even and put ourselves in that position, I don’t know if we expected ourselves to do that. It just shows how good of a coaching staff and how good of a mentality the team has. Going forward, they’re going to be good for a long time.”

Notes: Relievers Khalid Afify and Mario Roefaro, and starting pitchers Gio Yannuzzi also graduate. Zach Groh, 23, finished as BU’s all-time leader in wins (23), strikeouts (296) and ERA (3.33). Junior closer Greg Lane finished the season with a team-best 1.97 ERA and a BU record 11 saves.