It’s never quite safe to bet on the weather in Binghamton, especially when winter rolls around.
Binghamton’s winter during the 2014-15 season was especially fierce. Frozen turf forced the men’s lacrosse team to cancel its opening contest, while poor field conditions moved baseball’s home opener to Ithaca. Neither team heated up as their fields thawed, either. Baseball finished with a home mark of 5-7-2, failing to claim a single series, while men’s lacrosse finished winless at the Bearcats Sports Complex for the first time in program history.
After the disappointing spring season, summer and fall came and went, giving way to a mild winter. Come winter’s close, the men’s lacrosse team opened its 2016 home schedule with a sunny, 60-degree bout — a far cry from the icy 2015 opener that never was.
“In the spring, we started [outdoor practices] the third week in January,” said BU head men’s lacrosse coach Scott Nelson at his team’s February preseason presser. “We’ve been out every day — I think we missed one day due to weather — it was probably the easiest winter we’ve ever had.”
This season, Nelson’s team has made winning at home look easy, posting a 4-2 record at the Complex. Binghamton’s baseball and softball teams are a combined 14-0 so far at home, each winning its first seven games on their home turf. So, is mother nature the MVP for Binghamton in 2016?
Probably not. But according to Matt Lane, BU’s support systems assistant, she’s played an important role for the Bearcats this season.
“[In 2015], we didn’t really get on the baseball fields until a couple weeks into April,” Lane said. “This year, we were on our fields the first week of March. Huge difference. The ability for baseball and softball to practice and for lacrosse to have nice practice weather, is an advantage.”
Lane, who works in conjunction with Physical Facilities, is in charge of overseeing and managing all of BU’s athletic venues. From Binghamton’s 81,000-square-foot Sports Complex to the fully-irrigated, bluegrass baseball field, Lane — alongside groundskeepers Fred Fulton and Donald Williams — ensures Binghamton’s home-field advantage.
“It’s a huge effort between Physical Facilities and athletics to make sure that our facilities look nice, and to keep them nice for recruiting and people coming to campus,” he said. “Especially with the baseball filed being on Bunn Hill [Road], it’s a nice showpiece.”
The baseball team, which kicked off its spring season with indoor practices, found trouble on the road early against teams from warm-weather climates, such as Texas and North Carolina. Binghamton compiled a 2-13 record against teams outside of the Northeast. In their home opener, however, the Bearcats routed Bucknell, 14-2. Since then, BU has swept both Albany and Hartford at the Baseball Complex.
“Baseball and softball, they know the hops of the field,” Lane said. “They get to play out there every day. Out there, they know exactly how the ball is going to roll. We try to groom it for them before games to make sure that it’s ready to go.”
One of only three exclusively University-owned grass baseball fields in the America East, Binghamton’s Baseball Complex was renovated in 2012. Now featuring a 30-foot center-field batter’s eye and outdoor batting cages, the venue is a crown jewel in the conference.
BU’s athletic facilities have set it apart and made home sweet for the Bearcats, but not without the help of Lane and his crew, who kept winter’s wrath winless in 2016.