The Binghamton men’s baseball team, currently tied for first place in the America East, will look to continue its impressive conference season at the University of Maryland ‘ Baltimore County this weekend. The Retrievers are 0-8 on the season in conference play, and currently sit in last place in the America East.

Despite the disparity in records, the Bearcats cannot take UMBC lightly as the Retrievers rank third in the AE in home runs and runs and second in hits. With a potential dog fight looming at the top of the America East the Bearcats cannot take any opponent lightly.

‘We have to bring the same intensity we’ve brought so far from Albany and Vermont,’ senior pitcher Mike Van Gorder said after last week’s game.

Van Gorder will start the series finale Sunday. The Vestal native is the only pitcher in the America East with an ERA under 2.00, currently leading the league with a 1.67 earned run average.

Not to be outdone, junior teammate Zach Groh put out his best performance of the season last weekend, shutting out Vermont over eight innings. Groh, who was named America East Pitcher of the Week, will start on Friday.

The pitching staff as a whole has been a strength for the Bearcats. Left-handers Jeff Dennis, who is second on the team with a 2.57 ERA, and Scott Diamond will start the two games Saturday. The duo should come in handy as three of the Retrievers top five hitters are left-handed.

The Bearcats pitching staff as a whole is second in the AE in ERA.

‘We all just realize what we have to do now,’ Groh said. ‘We had a rough time out [two weeks ago] in BYU and we figured out what we did wrong and made the adjustments.’

Groh said he will approach his game like he has every game this season.

‘Every time you go out there for every pitcher you just throw strikes and do your job,’ he said. ‘They’re going to hit and we’re gonna score runs, and as long as we get those runs we’ll be fine.’

The Bearcat lineup, hitting .273, good for third in the AE, should have no trouble with the Retriever pitching staff, which currently allows almost 1.5 runs per game than BU. Junior right-hander Steve Evans leads the Retrievers with a 3.47 ERA.

Senior first baseman Brendan Hitchcock will look to remain on top of the America East’s batting race this weekend. Hitchcock is currently hitting .410, just ahead of UMBC’s Will Delawter, who is hitting .371.

The Stony Brook Seawolves, currently tied for the first place in the conference with Binghamton, also takes on a team that is winless in conference play this weekend, as they host the Albany Great Danes in a four-game set. Albany’s four AE losses came against Binghamton, so how Stony Brook fares this weekend should be a good indicator as to how good the Bearcats really are.

Looking beyond this weekend, the Bearcats have a big four-game series coming up against second place Hartford next weekend. The Hawks, at 5-2, are just one game behind BU. Hartford travels to Vermont this weekend to take on a Catamount team that lost two of three to Binghamton last week.