After losing three of its first four games in its season-opening series against Virginia Military Institute, the Binghamton University baseball team lost two of three this weekend, dropping a series to Liberty University in what was the team’s second consecutive weekend in Virginia.
The Bearcats (2-5) fell in the series opener 12-2 before splitting Saturday’s double-header, winning the first game 12-7 before falling in the nightcap 9-6. The teams were originally slated to face each other four times, but Sunday afternoon’s series finale was cancelled because of inclement weather.
Binghamton pitching hurt the Bearcats in the weekend’s first game as the staff surrendered 20 hits over eight innings.
Binghamton and Liberty (5-7) were tied 2-2 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, but the Flames’ bats ignited for 10 unanswered runs. In five innings of work, senior James Giulietti surrendered five earned runs off 12 hits, striking out only one of 24 batters faced. Liberty continued to score in the bottom of the eighth, tagging Bearcat freshman Mark Palumbo for five runs off four hits, knocking him out of the game before he could finish the inning.
“[James Giulietti] pitched well opening weekend, but this past weekend he made some mistakes,” Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki said. “[Liberty] had a very good offensive lineup, so any mistakes James made they capitalized on them. It wasn’t one of his sharper efforts, but he competed, and when he came out of the game he had done what we ask all of our starting pitchers to do, and that’s [to] keep us in the ball game and give us a chance to win.”
Three of Binghamton’s nine hits came from senior catcher C.J. Lukaszewski, who finished the night 3-for-4 at the plate, driving in a run in the fourth inning with a single to right field.
Binghamton bounced back from the loss in Saturday’s double-header, winning the opener for the team’s second victory of the season.
Liberty scored in the bottom of the third to take a 1-0 lead, but the Bearcat offense got into a rhythm in the top of the fourth, scoring five runs on six hits. Sophomore Jordon Smucker drove in the first runs, singling to center field to drive in senior Corey Taylor and junior Dave Ciocchi. Freshman John Howell drove in Smucker in the next at-bat, followed by a single by freshman Daniel Nevares. Senior Peter Bregartner capped off the scoring, driving in two to give BU a 5-1 lead.
The Flames battled back in the bottom half of the inning, cutting the score to 5-4. But Binghamton again widened the gap to four on a bases-clearing double by senior Jeff Skelhorne-Gross who drove in Lukaszewski, Ciocchi and Taylor.
Liberty was able to come within one run, but Smucker provided the Bearcats with four insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning, belting a grand slam to right field to seal the win. He finished the game 2-for-4 from the plate, leading the team with a career-high six RBI. Dave Ciocchi finished 2-for-4 while scoring three runs, and Corey Taylor finished 3-for-3 from the plate. Sinicki thinks Taylor is handling the pressures of the season well.
“[Taylor] is comfortable, but he’s finding it hard to be the reigning Player of the Year in conference,” Sinicki said.
After hitting for a .370 batting average and leading the conference in home runs and RBI, Taylor was named 2010 America East Player of the Year. But through seven games this season, Taylor is hitting just .231 with six hits as he adjusts to opposing pitchers using different approaches.
“He’s going to see a steady diet of off-speed pitches and breaking pitches because everyone knows he’s really good at turning on a fastball,” Sinicki said. “He’s going to be pitched differently because the word’s out on him now and he’s not going to jump up and surprise anybody. People know of him as an outstanding player and one of our top hitters.”
Binghamton entered the nightcap looking to sweep the double-header, but the game was put out of reach after Bearcat pitching surrendered seven runs in the bottom of the fourth. In 3.2 innings, sophomore Jay Lynch gave up nine runs, five of which were earned. Trailing 9-2, senior Morgan Smith entered the game for the Bearcats, giving up only one hit in 2.1 innings of work.
Ciocchi provided the Bearcats with five RBI, finishing 3-for-3 from the plate and lifting his batting average to .560 on the season. His 14 hits and eight RBI lead the team.
“Dave can just hit, it comes easy to him,” Sinicki said. “He makes it look very easy, and it’s a skill that he’s very accomplished at. He’s come out of the gates way ahead of where a lot of people do. We’re blessed to have a kid like that hitting in the three-spot for us.”
While Binghamton’s offense seems to be clicking, the club’s pitching has been inconsistent. Led by junior Alex Adami, the Bearcat bullpen has struggled through the first seven games. After two appearances, Adami’s ERA stands at 14.73. As a sophomore, Adami finished 12 games for BU, earning three saves in 15 appearances last season.
“I think Alex has good enough stuff to be successful for us,” Sinicki said. “What he struggles with sometimes is coming out of the bullpen and commanding the strike zone right away. It doesn’t matter what level you pitch at, pitching behind in the count all the time is obviously going to be an advantage to the hitter. When he gets ahead of hitters is when he’s very successful.”
The Bearcats are set to return south this weekend for games against both George Washington University and Central Connecticut State University, looking to improve on the team’s 2-5 record.
“Our goal from game to game and weekend to weekend is to be better than we were the weekend before,” Sinicki said. “That’s our approach, trying not to look too far ahead and just try and do things better than we did. It’s striving to get all three areas of the game clicking at the same time, our hitting our pitching and our defense.”