The Binghamton baseball team played its season-opening series this past weekend, getting swept by Texas State. Despite all three games being relatively close, Binghamton was unable to walk away with a win.

“I actually thought they were three pretty good college baseball games,” said Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki. “For being outside for the first time this season, I think we played well.”

Game one opened on Friday night and saw Texas State (3-0) take an early lead in the first inning, putting up two runs off of a pair of RBIs. After the first inning, Binghamton’s (0-3) starter, redshirt sophomore pitcher Ryan Bates managed to pitch three scoreless innings to follow up. Freshman center fielder Matt Bolton put up Binghamton’s first and only run of game one with an inside-the-park home run, making the score 2-1 in the top of the third.

Graduate student relief pitcher Ryan Packard came in in the fifth inning and pitched two more scoreless innings before giving up two more runs in the bottom of the seventh, making it a 4-1 ballgame. The Bobcats’ closer shut the door against BU in game one in a three-up, three-down inning, striking out two batters in the process.

“[Bates and Packard] did a good job giving us a chance to win a ball game and that’s all you want your starting pitchers to do,” Sinicki said. “In that game offensively, their No. 1 starter did a really good job against us … Sometimes you gotta tip your hat to the guy who’s pitching against you.”

Game two saw the highest-scoring matchup of the weekend, with Texas just edging out the Bearcats in an 8-7 victory. Binghamton took an early 2-0 lead before Texas responded with five unanswered runs. Senior catcher Evin Sullivan had a go-ahead grand slam in the top of the fifth, giving Binghamton a 6-5 lead. The Bobcats responded with three more runs in the sixth, and despite another RBI by Sullivan in the top of the ninth, Binghamton fell 8-7.

“[Sullivan’s] gonna have to be one of those guys for us,” Sinicki said. “He’s a four-year starter. He’s played a lot of innings for this program. I’m hoping that this, his senior year, is going to be his best season yet … He did a good job this series, but specifically [Saturday] he did a really good job getting us on the board, and getting us into a situation where we had a chance to win the ball game.”

In game three, Texas took a 1-0 lead in the third and followed it up with six runs scored in the bottom of the fourth. The Bobcats had two outs and no one on base when an error by freshman outfielder Braylen Gonzalez allowed a Bobcat to get on base, which was followed by a string of hits. Binghamton racked up a few runs in the innings that followed, including a solo home run by senior outfielder Logan Haskell in the top of the ninth, but the Bearcats ultimately fell 7-4, as they were swept in their opening series.

“All six runs [in the fourth inning] were unearned,” Sinicki said. “We dropped the fly ball in the outfield, and that opened up the floodgates, and we just couldn’t stop it until they put six runs on the board … We’ve got to try and find a way, either with our pitching or our defense, to end the inning before it gets to a point where it did today.”

Binghamton will continue its road trip against Elon University. First pitch for game one is set for 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21 at Latham Park in Elon, North Carolina.