With the season winding down, the Binghamton baseball team dug itself into a hole this weekend after it was swept by UMBC. Sunday’s loss marked the first time that the Bearcats were swept in a series at home in nearly four years. But, more importantly, the loss drops Binghamton one and a half games out of a playoff spot with only six conference games remaining in the regular season.
“Losses really hurt this time of year,” Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki said. “It’s a tough weekend.”
The Bearcats (16-19-1, 6-11 America East) dropped the series opener, 3-1, stranding 14 on base. After a two-run fourth inning, the Retrievers (25-16, 10-8 AE) added a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to push their lead, 3-0. BU responded with an unearned run in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 3-1 but that was all the scoring the Bearcats could manage.
In game two, UMBC scored in each of the first three innings to jump out to another 3-0 lead. In the bottom of the third inning, Binghamton showed signs of life and trimmed the deficit. Senior outfielder Zach Blanden reached on an error by the UMBC second baseman. After advancing to second on a groundout by junior third baseman David Schanz, Blanden scored on an RBI double by senior outfielder Jake Thomas to cut the UMBC lead to 3-1. Junior second baseman Reed Gamache singled up the middle to cut the lead, 3-2. BU tied the game in the fourth when Thomas walked with the bases loaded, but UMBC pushed across three more runs in the fifth inning to make it 6-3.
In game three, UMBC pushed across six runs in the middle innings en route to a 9-7 win to sweep the series. Binghamton left the bases loaded in two straight innings, but couldn’t push anything across.
“When you have chances to score runs, even when you make outs on sacrifice flies, you need to get it done,” Sinicki said. “When you don’t get it done, it’s going to bite you in the end, and it happened all weekend.”
Facing a 7-0 deficit, Binghamton battled back in the seventh inning. After loading the bases, Thomas walked to force Binghamton’s first run. Gamache followed with a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 7-2. The very next batter, sophomore shortstop Brendan Skidmore, smacked a three-run home run into the left field bullpen to cut the lead to 7-5.
A UMBC double in the top of the eighth extended the lead to 8-5. In the bottom of the eighth, senior first baseman Brian Ruby singled with two men on base to plate Schantz and cut BU’s deficit to 8-6. Freshman left fielder CJ Krowiak then singled to load the bases for Thomas, who walked to force in another run. The defensive highlight of the game came in the top of the ninth, when Blanden gunned down a runner tagging up from third base to hold the score, 9-7, headed into the bottom of the ninth. Although the Bearcats brought the tying run up to the plate, an infield pop-up sealed the deal for the Retrievers.
“You can’t put yourself in a hole that much so that when you do try to battle back, you come up short,” Sinicki said. “We need to compete innings one through nine, not seven through nine.”
Binghamton committed eight errors over the three games, a statistic that needs fixing for BU to have a chance at the final playoff spot.
“They’re the things we work on every single day in practice,” Sinicki said. “I’m not going to go into my office and find anything magical to sprinkle on the guys. We just have to keep working through it.”
While Binghamton faces Siena in a non-conference single game today, the team is already looking ahead. In the coming two weekends, the Bearcats are set to face America East foes Maine and Stony Brook.
“We buried ourselves in a deep, deep hole right now,” Sinicki said. “And we need to take care of business in the last two weekends of conference play.”
First pitch against Siena is scheduled for 3 p.m. today at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.