It would be easy to attribute all of the Binghamton baseball team’s recent success to its offense, which has put up impressive numbers lately. Last weekend against Stony Brook, the Bearcats scored seven runs in an inning, leading them to a come-from-behind victory and a series sweep. The weekend before that, the Bearcats (23-20, 15-3 America East) scored 12 runs in one inning on their way to scoring 21 total for the game.
The visible successes of the Bearcats’ offense, however, may have overshadowed an impressive and reliable defense. BU’s .981 fielding percentage currently ranks eighth in the country.
“We stress the importance of making routine plays,” said BU head coach Tim Sinicki. “It’s something we do on a daily basis, as much time as we put it on offense, we try to put an equal amount of time on defense.”
The Bearcats’ lineup saw a flurry of movement around the diamond in the offseason. Junior Brendan Skidmore, who split his time last year by starting games at shortstop and first base, transitioned full-time to first, while sophomore CJ Krowiak moved to center field this year after spending much of last year and his high school career in the infield.
“Krowiak is probably the best athlete on the team,” Sinicki said. “We knew that it would be a seamless transition and Skidmore has worked really hard to become an accomplished first baseman. We talked about it at the end of last year, he bought into it and he’s done an excellent job.”
Binghamton’s fielding percentage has improved drastically from a year ago, when it ranked just 214th in the country. The team’s 30 errors so far in 2016 are good for fifth-best in the NCAA and 29 fewer than last season.
Fielding percentage, the ratio of putouts and assists to total chances and errors, can sometimes paint a murky picture of a team’s overall defensive performance. They say nothing about how many balls a player can get to. But with a focus on positioning, Binghamton’s range in the field this year has routinely helped the squad win close games.
“It’s all about positioning; it’s all about patience and all of the little things,” Sinicki said. “We preach these things in practice everyday, but the guys are the ones performing in the games so the credit goes to them.”
To a certain extent, BU’s pitching staff needs its defense to be good more than most teams do. Their 5.8 strikeouts per nine innings are currently the fewest in the AE. When batters go against Binghamton’s pitching staff, they usually put the ball in play. But that’s by design, because the Bearcats pitch to contact.
With the exception of senior Mike Bunal, who strikes out batters with a slider that sits in the low 90s, the Binghamton pitching staff rarely attempts to strike out batters. Instead, it aims to induce poor contact early on in at-bats, keeping pitch counts down but saddling the defense with extra work.
“Because we feel that we defend at a very high level, we have our pitchers … pitch to contact early in the at bat,” Sinicki said. “If you can get early contact, you’re going to keep your pitch count low down, you’re going to be more efficient, you’ll stay in the game a little longer. And so far, it’s worked out really well for us.”
Binghamton now sits atop the AE, 4 1/2 games ahead of Hartford with only six conference games left to play. Part of this success can be attributed to Binghamton’s ability to avoid mistakes in the field.
“Our guys are playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Sinicki said. “They’re expecting to make the play and even more importantly, they’re anticipating the ball being hit to them. Confidence goes a long way and when you combine it with good athletes and good players, it means a lot of success.”
For complete coverage of Binghamton’s sweep of Stony Brook last weekend, see bupipedream.com/sports.