Contact: John Hartrick (hartrick@binghamton.edu)

VESTAL, N.Y. - After taking some blows of late from Mother Nature, Binghamton baseball will step on Cornell's turf field for its "home" opener on Monday morning when the Bearcats (4-12, 1-5 AE) face UMass Lowell (5-13, 1-2 AE) in an America East doublehdeader. Game 1 will start at 9:30 a.m. - the earliest start time in program history.

Binghamton has been idle for a week after its Tuesday game at Penn State was cancelled and this condensed Lowell series was pushed back three days and moved to Cornell's Hoy Field. The Bearcats have grown familiar with Hoy, having used it as a de facto home field in 2012 when BU was in the midst of 80 consecutive games away from home while its facility was being renovated.

Last weekend, BU stumbled in a three-game sweep at the hands of a UMBC team that BU had previously dominated (40-6 entering the series). A 10-9 13-inning letdown turned into a twinbill defeat one day later and the set of losses has pinned the Bearcats in last place in the America East standings. However, there are 17 conference games remaining on the schedule as BU attempts to advance to the postseason for a ninth straight year.

Senior right fielder Jake Thomas leads the team with a .373 average and 12 RBI. Senior center fielder Zach Blanden is hitting .339 with 14 runs scored and sophomore catcher Eddie Posavec is batting .304 with 11 RBI.

Junior Rob Hardy (1-2, 5.18 ERA) and Mike Bunal (1-3, 7.11 ERA) get the starts today. The Bearcats return to Hoy Field tomorrow to face host Cornell, continuing a busy week that could feature as many as seven games in seven days.  

The River Hawks (5-13, 1-2 AE) are in the midst of just their second season of Division I baseball. But UML finished third in the conference standings a year ago and won 20 games, making the program anything but an underdog. Back are first team all-conference selections Ian Strom (So. CF) and Matt Sanchez (Sr. 3B) along with second-team pick Danny Mendick (Sr. SS). This season, UML was picked to finish fifth. The team dropped two of three in their conference-opening series at Stony Brook, which finished up last Monday. The host Seawolves won 10-1 and 2-1 (walkoff) before UML took the finale 6-3. On Wednesday, UML lost 8-1 at Rhode Island.

Taking the hill for UML will be senior right-handers Geoff DeGroot (1-1, 5.12 ERA) and Kevin Veilleux (2-2, 4.71 ERA).

In the all-time series between the two programs, Lowell leads 7-2. The River Hawks won three of five head-to-head games last year, winning twice in Lowell before BU took two of three in Vestal. The River Hawks won all four meetings while the two schools were members of the Division II New England Collegiate Conference (1999-00).   

After the twinbill with Lowell, the Bearcats will return to Hoy one day later as the visitor in a non-conference game against Cornell.