The Binghamton baseball team hit the road on Tuesday afternoon for a nonconference game against St. Bonaventure. The Bearcats fell behind early and were unable to recover as they played seven different pitchers throughout the game in a 7-3 defeat.

“It was a little bit of self-destruction in the first three innings, we did it to ourselves,” said Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki. “We weren’t sharp on the mound — we walked a couple too many guys and then we made a couple errors and those runs came around to score.”

BU (5-18, 2-7 America East [AE]) had the opportunity to take an early lead in this contest. The Bearcats had runners on first and second with no one out in both the first two innings of the game. However, Binghamton came up short each time, stranding four runners in two innings. St. Bonaventure (1-18, 0-3 Atlantic 10) scored in each of the first two innings despite not earning a single hit.

“We put ourselves in a hole, not [because of] anything St. Bonaventure necessarily did,” Sinicki said. “It was more of our lack of execution.”

The Bonnies took advantage of a Binghamton error in the first inning as well as two wild pitches in the second to gain their early lead. Binghamton’s defensive efforts did not improve as St. Bonaventure added three runs in the third inning to take a 5-1 lead. By the end of the third inning, BU had already gone through three pitchers.

“During the midweek games we try to get guys some innings who don’t get a chance to pitch on the weekends sometimes,” Sinicki said. “We had a plan that seven guys were gonna get innings … We gave the first three innings to a couple of freshmen. It was the first time they can start and appear in games early on. There were probably some nerves and some anxious moments but they’re gonna be good pitchers for us down the road.”

Binghamton chipped away at the lead by adding one run in the top of the third, fourth and fifth innings. However, the Bonnies shut down the Bearcats for the final four frames of the game and added two more late runs to put the game away. Sophomore catcher Kevin Reilly highlighted the BU offensive performance by going 2-for-4 with a solo home run to lead off the fourth inning. The sophomore now has six hits in his last three games. Junior outfielder Cavan Tully also went 2-for-4 but hit double and a run scored for Binghamton.

“We played a lot of regulars today who got some extra at-bats,” Sinicki said. “Baseball is kind of a game of rhythm so these midweek games will hopefully help us get our rhythm and prepare for a weekend series in the [AE].”

The Bearcats used seven pitchers in the game. Sophomore pitcher Alex Henderson and junior pitcher Tanner Sinicki each had hitless and scoreless outings, pitching 1.2 and 1.0 innings, respectively.

“The middle three guys, Henderson, Sinicki and [sophomore pitcher Owen Parliament], came in and did a good job,” Sinicki said. “They put up zeroes on the board.”

Binghamton out-hit its opponent but was unable to come away with a victory as they had nine hits to St. Bonaventure’s seven. However, St. Bonaventure drew six walks and had three batters hit by a pitch. The Bearcats also committed two errors whereas the Bonnies played a clean game.

“St. Bonaventure actually threw two of their better arms against us today, I think that helps that we didn’t see two of their lesser pitchers,” Sinicki said. “We need to continue to see good pitching so that it prepares us for the weekend.”

Binghamton is next slated to face Hartford for a weekend series starting on Friday, April 8. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Bearcats Baseball Complex in Vestal, New York.