After taking the first two games of the series, 11-5 and 2-0, against Stony Brook, the Binghamton baseball team trailed, 3-0, in the fifth inning of Sunday’s final game of the series. But the Bearcats (23-20, 15-3 America East) exploded for seven runs en route to a 7-3 victory, completing the three-game sweep and pushing their winning streak to eight. With the win, the Bearcats advanced to 12-0 at home and remain the only team in the nation to be undefeated at home.
“You go into every game trying to win and you certainly don’t expect to sweep the series in conference games, especially against a team like [Stony Brook],” Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki said. “Big innings like that, seven runs, are usually going to be good enough when you’re pitching pretty well and playing good defense.”
Sinicki praised his team’s defensive play and for good reason. The Bearcats lead the America East in fielding percentage and players caught stealing.
“We don’t have a pitching staff that strikes out a lot of guys and so the amount of time that we put in on offense, we like to put in on defense,” Sinicki said. “It really has been paying off. Defensively as a unit, we’re really playing well in all facets. It gives the pitching staff a lot of confidence.”
On Sunday, however, pitching was not an issue. Sophomore starter Nick Wegmann allowed only two hits before handing the ball over to freshman reliever Nick Gallagher. The reliever pitched 5.1 innings and retired 15 consecutive batters before finally allowing his one and only hit in the ninth inning.
The Bearcats currently sit atop the America East standings and hold a four-and-a-half game cushion over second place Hartford. The Bearcats will hit the road for a single game against Siena on Tuesday, before traveling down the road to face conference rival Albany in a three-game series this weekend.
While the team hopes to ride its winning streak to a top seed in the America East tournament in three weeks, Sinicki reiterated his team’s biggest strength.
“Our guys are playing with a lot of confidence,” Sinicki said. “I think that when a ball is hit, they’re expecting to make the play and more importantly, they’re anticipating the ball to be hit to them. Confidence goes a long way.”
BU is set to match up against Siena at 3 p.m. on Tuesday from Siena Field in Loudonville, New York.