After sweeping UMass Lowell in an America East (AE) conference matchup over the weekend, the Binghamton baseball team took the road to Canisius on Tuesday, looking to continue its winning ways. BU could not keep up with its fellow reigning NCAA tournament opponents, as a 10-run rally in the seventh from Canisius saw it overcome the visitors 22-7.

“We didn’t play well from start to finish,” said Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki. “[We’re] always trying to find a few brights spots, and I thought the guys who pitched the middle innings did a nice job. I think [senior first baseman Kevin Gsell] remained pretty hot for us, and [junior outfielder Christian Perez] got an opportunity to start a game yesterday and play a little bit, he did a nice job as well, always nice to see hard work pay off. But overall it was just a bad game. What we’ll do is just flush that thing, practice the next few days and get ready for Bryant this weekend.”

The game’s opening innings set the tone for the rest of the day to come, as the Griffins (7-11, 3-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference [MAAC]) found their first two runs in the bottom of the first off of a single. The Bearcats (11-9, 3-0 AE) were quickly dispatched in the following inning, with the hosts then adding six more runs in their half of the second to put them eight up.

It wasn’t until the top of the fifth, where the Griffins had now found themselves two more runs, did Binghamton manage its first scoring play of the game. Freshman infielder Mike Stellrecht hit a double-play grounder allowing sophomore second baseman Nick Roselli to get home.

“You try not to read too much into the mid-week games,” Sinicki said. “We try to win every game we play, obviously, but to save time we’ve pitched some guys who are maybe on the younger side, who don’t get to play a lot. You’ve got to keep guys sharp, you’ve got to reward guys with playing time for all the hard work they put in during practice. We try not to get too bent out of shape if we don’t play well, but we’ve got to regroup and got to keep our focus on the weekend for conference games.”

The top of the seventh would be the next time when BU found its scoring form, only after Canisius added another two runs of its own. In sequence, junior outfielder Mike Gunning and Gsell both hit RBIs. Gunning drove in one with a double, while Gsell scored two with a single, making the score 12-4 going into the stretch. Perez and freshman outfielder Nick Ungania scored the unearned runs.

In the home half of the seventh, however, the offensive outpour from the Griffins hit its peak. 10 unanswered runs in the inning pegged the Bearcats back 22-4. Three consolation runs from BU in the top of the eighth rounded out the game, including a two-run homer from Perez and another RBI for Gsell. Perez went 2-for-4 in the end, as Gsell went 3-for-4 with three RBIs in what were Binghamton’s positives of the 22-7 defeat.

“[Gsell] did a good job [Tuesday],” Sinicki said. “His two-strike approach was really good. I think at least two of his hits were with two strikes, and that’s a sign of a good hitter, someone who is confident with a two-strike count. So that was really encouraging. [Perez] has worked hard, hasn’t had a lot of opportunities, but he’s tireless. He’s constantly trying to get better, and I tried to reward him with a start yesterday because he earned it, and he made the most of it. So those are two things that are really the biggest positives I took from yesterday’s game.”

BU will return to conference play this weekend when it hosts Bryant in a series starting Friday, March 31. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Bearcats Baseball Complex in Vestal, New York.