After a long winter, the Binghamton baseball team played at home for the first time this season. The Bearcats (11-13-1, 5-6 America East) finished their non-conference doubleheader against Marist by winning their home opener, 7-3, and taking a rare 9-9 tie in the nightcap after the game was called because of darkness.
Binghamton used all 17 position players in the doubleheader, which Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki revealed was his plan from the start.
“We have a chance to play a couple of midweek games or get the guys some opportunities who maybe don’t play a lot, and that was the game plan going in today,” Sinicki said. “We have 17 guys who play a position, and my goal today was to start all 17 guys in one way, shape or form.”
In the first game, BU handed the ball to freshman southpaw Nick Wegmann. A one-out sac fly in the second inning put Marist (9-17-1, 4-5 Mid Atlantic) up, 1-0. Binghamton evened the score in the bottom of the frame after junior first baseman Kyle Coronel doubled to right field to score freshman designated hitter Patrick Britt.
After breaking the tie on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fourth, the Bearcats extended their lead to 3-1 with another double from Coronel. The bats came alive again in the bottom of the fifth, when four straight batters knocked in four more runs to extend the lead to 7-1. Marist loaded the bases in the sixth and scored two to cut the lead to 7-3, but the Red Foxes failed to plate another run.
Coronel finished the game going 3-for-3 with three RBIs, and has seen his playing time increase in the recent weeks.
“Kyle has been injured for most of his time here in Binghamton, so unfortunately because of it, we haven’t really had a good chance to get a good look at him and evaluate him,” Sinicki said. “We’ve tried to give him some chances in recent weeks, and he’s performed and played well. We’ll continue to feed him some opportunities and as long as he can do a good job, we’ll stick with him and see what he can do for us.”
In game two, Binghamton jumped out to an early lead, adding six runs on seven hits in the first two innings. However, BU squandered a five-run lead in the fourth, and Marist tied the game up at six on a grand slam from senior first baseman Steve Laurino.
Binghamton regained the lead in the bottom of the inning as freshman third baseman Luke Tevlin smashed a triple down the right field line to plate senior right fielder Jake Thomas and freshman second baseman CJ Krowiak. Tevlin scored on a sacrifice fly by Wegmann, now a designated hitter, to push the lead to 9-6.
Late bullpen troubles squandered BU’s chances of winning. The team surrendered three runs in the final two innings to force a 9-9 tie before the umpires called the game for darkness.
The Bearcats are set to face America East-rival Albany this weekend in a three-game series. Heading into the series, Sinicki sees the need for his team to improve in all areas.
“We need to do a better job when we have opportunities offensively to either get guys in, get guys on base to lead off innings, or advance runners,” Sinicki said. “We need to make all routine plays that we can make on the defensive side of things. On the mound, we need to continue to throw strikes and be able to keep hitters off balance and command our pitches. Right now we’re not perfect in any of those areas so we have to keep working and try to strive for that for the weekend.”
The two teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday with the first game set for 1 p.m. and a second game beginning shortly after the first. The series will conclude on Sunday, with a single game beginning at 1 p.m. All games will take place at the Baseball Complex in Vestal, New York.