Matt Simek didn’t hit the ball terribly deep into left field, but it was all Henry Dunn needed to score the winning run and give the Bearcats a pivotal conference series victory on Saturday.
Senior second baseman Simek drove in both Bearcat runs, including the sac fly to score Dunn in the home half of the seventh inning, as the Binghamton baseball team defeated Vermont 2-1.
Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki said they wanted Simek to wait until he got a pitch up in the strike zone so he could hit it to the outfield.
‘We were pretty comfortable that Henry could score on pretty much anything hit out there,’ Sinicki said.
‘I was thinking, ‘God, I hope it’s far enough for me to make it home,’ Dunn said. ‘I guess it was far enough.’
The victory gave the Bearcats a 2-1 series victory over Vermont. The Catamounts won the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, 6-4. The Bearcats now hold a tiebreaker over UVM if the two have an identical conference record at the end of the year. The final game of the series was canceled due to weather on Sunday.
‘It’s really important to win that second one, because in the end head-to-head decides whether we make the tournament or not,’ senior first baseman Brendon Hitchock said.
The win moves BU to a 6-1 in the America East and locks them into a first place tie with Stony Brook.
‘It was huge,’ Dunn said. ‘We knew we should have won the second game, and we had to come back and beat them this time.’
Senior Mike Van Gorder made the start for the Bearcats, and allowed one run on four hits while striking out four over six innings. Van Gorder lowered his America East-leading ERA to 1.67.
Khalid Afify got the win for Binghamton, striking out pinch hitter Jeff Hepner with runners on the corners in the top of the seventh.
The Bearcats were staked to an early 1-0 lead when Simek drove in senior shortstop Justin Smucker on a single in the first inning.
Van Gorder was perfect until the fourth inning, when UVM struck back as star Bryan Rembisz scored on an error. The Catamounts then loaded the bases, but Van Gorder ended the inning by inducing a 5-4-3 double play.
Earlier in the day the Catamounts jumped on junior Scott Diamond for five runs in five innings, and Rembisz kept the Bearcats at bay, striking out seven over seven innings. By the time BU batted in the fifth inning, they trailed 5-0.
‘To be honest I don’t think we played as well as we have been,’ Sinicki said. ‘But I don’t think any of us expected to go 24-0 in the conference, and the greatest testament to the guys is the ability to lose that game and forget about it and find a way to win this one.’
Simek went 2-for-4 with two RBIs in the first game, and Smucker went 2-for-3 with a run scored.
Friday’s game saw junior Zach Groh throw his best game of the season, striking out seven over eight innings to beat Vermont 4-0. Scouts from the Cincinatti Reds and Philadelphia Phillies were on hand for Friday’s game, though both declined to comment on whom they were at the game to see.
‘All four of my pitches were working,’ Groh said. ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever had that in my college career so far. Usually it’s only two or three, and that day it was all four and it just worked.’
Groh was backed up by senior first baseman Brendon Hitchcock. Vermont elected to intentionally walk Simek to load the bases and face Hitchock with a lefty-lefty matchup.
The AE batting average leader expected a curveball, and got it on the third pitch of the at-bat, drilling it into the left-centerfield gap for a bases-clearing three-RBI double.
‘When they walked Simek I was sitting on curveball the whole at bat,’ Hitchock said; he is currently hitting .410. ‘I finally got the third and luckily I hit a nice liner.’
The Bearcats play a non-conference game today against Siena at Varsity Field next to the Events Center at 3 p.m.