While the Binghamton region is still reeling from last weekend’s late winter blizzard, the Binghamton University baseball team is set to head south once more, where it will look to bounce back from a rocky start to the 2011 season. After inconsistency both at the plate and on the mound cost BU its first two series of the year, the Bearcats (2-5) will be given an opportunity to even out their record this weekend, as they are slated to play four games against George Washington University and Central Connecticut State University.
“We just want to be better this weekend than we were last weekend,” said Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki. “That’s kind of our goal, every time we practice and every time we take the field we hope to be better than we were the day before.”
Last week, BU dropped two of its three games against Liberty University in a series where Bearcat pitching gave up a total of 22 earned runs, eight of which were surrendered by the bullpen.
According to Sinicki, BU will head into play with the same rotation of senior James Giulietti, junior Mike Augliera, sophomore Jay Lynch and freshman Jack Rogalla and hope to fare better.
“In the game of baseball, pitchers [are going to] go out and some days have their good stuff, and others you struggle a little bit,” Sinicki said. “We’re not going to make any big adjustments, we’re just going to run our guys back out there and … see if we can continue to get better.”
Binghamton’s No. 1 starter, Giulietti, has struggled so far this season, posting a 7.20 ERA in 10 innings pitched. Giulietti looks to pick up his first win of the year when the team plays George Washington. George Washington snapped a seven-game losing streak with its win against University of Maryland, Baltimore County on Wednesday. The Colonials are now 3-9 on the year.
Augliera, the lone BU pitcher to pick up a win last weekend, is scheduled to take the mound tomorrow against Central Connecticut. With 11.1 innings under his belt so far this year, Augliera is the first pitcher in the America East to reach two wins. Despite giving up four runs against Liberty in the team’s last series, he ranks fifth in the conference with a 3.18 earned run average.
The Blue Devils have yet to earn a win this season, losing their first two games of the year against Navy and tying with University of Hartford on Wednesday.
Junior first baseman David Ciocchi has propelled a BU offense struggling to hit consistently. Ciocchi opened the season red hot and has yet to show signs of cooling off. The junior, who Sinicki says is widely known as one of the best, if not the best, “pure hitters” in the conference, garnered AE Player of the Week honors for his performance.
After hitting .600 in last weekend’s series against Liberty, Ciocchi ranks first in the conference in batting average at .560 on the year. His .960 slugging percentage and .607 on base percentage are also league bests.
Ciocchi also impressed on defense last weekend, committing no errors on 21 chances in the field.
Also picking up honors this week was freshman shortstop John Howell, who was named America East Rookie of the Week. Hitting out of the eighth spot, Howell went 5-for-10 and posted a .546 OBP. The rookie drove in two runs while scoring two of his own.
The Bearcats have shown success both at the plate and on the mound this year, but rarely have the successes coincided. Sinicki said the key to getting that to happen is to “just keep playing.”
“It’s hard when you go outside, you play and then you have to come … inside and practice for a few days and then go back outside,” Sinicki said. “It’s hard to get a real flow and a real feel for the game. I think that’ll come eventually once we … are able to get on our field and be out there more consistently, but in the meantime we just need to kind of deal with the way things are. That’s life in the Northeast for college baseball.”
The Bearcats were slated to kick off their weekend today against George Washington in Arlington, Va. but the game was cancelled due to rain. The team is then set to travel to Annapolis, Md. to take on Central Connecticut State at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow and finish the weekend with a doubleheader on Sunday. They’re scheduled to face off against George Washington at 11 a.m. and Central Connecticut State at 2 p.m., both on Sunday.