LOWELL, Mass. - Regular season champion Binghamton baseball (30-11) begins its postseason on Thursday when the top-seeded Bearcats face No. 4 Albany at 12:45 p.m. in the America East tournament at LeLacheur Park. The game was delayed from a 9 a.m. start because of rain. The Great Danes advanced in the winner's bracket with a 3-0 win over No. 5 Maine in the tournament's opening game Wednesday.

Binghamton has won three of the last four conference titles and is a combined 37-9 against America East opponents in the last two years. The Bearcats, however, have been hit hard by injuries in the last month. The starting lineup has just three carryover players from the 2016 squad that went 3-0 to capture the championship at LeLacheur.

Sophomore Nick Gallagher (8-2, 2.33), the America East Pitcher of the Year, will take the hill for the Bearcats. When Gallagher last faced the Great Danes, he scattered four hits and two runs in 6.1 innings in BU's 7-2 win on April 14. Binghamton swept the season series from Albany, winning by scores of 7-2, 4-3 and 3-0 on the road. 

The Bearcats bring an all-time high RPI of 44 (out of 295) into the postseason and are one win away from tying the school record for wins in a season, set in 2010. 

With rain prominent in the forecast throughout the next three days in Lowell, the start times and entire tournament schedule may be in flux.  

BEARCATS LOOKING FOR BACK-TO-BACK TITLES
Binghamton enters the tournament as the defending champions and BU is looking to go back-to-back and make it four America East titles in the last five years. No AE team has done that since Delaware captured four straight titles from 1998-01.

TEN TITLES IN 11 YEARS
With the 2017 regular season crown, BU has now won a combined 10 America East regular season and tournament titles in the last 11 years - more than any other team in the conference during that span. The Bearcats won four straight regular season crown between 2007-10 and this year's trophy made it two in a row. The team's four postseason tournament titles came in 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2016.

SINICKI A MAINSTAY
Head coach Tim Sinicki is wrapping up his 25th year managing the Bearcats. He is the longest-tenured coach at the University and has seen the team through its Division III, II and now Division I tenures. With the 2017 top coaching honor just bestowed upon him, Sinicki is a six-time America East Coach of the Year (2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2016). He enters the postseason with 564 career victories.

SIX NAMED ALL-CONFERENCE
Six players earned accolades from the conference, headed by Pitcher of the Year Nick Gallagher (8-2, 2.33 ERA). Joining Gallagher on the first team are Jacob Wloczewski (4-1, 3.20 ERA), 3B Justin Yurchak (.333, .478 OBP) and 2B Justin Drpich (.341, 25 RBI). Second team honors went to Nick Wegmann (4-5, 2.97 ERA) and CF CJ Krowiak (.329, 55 hits). Drpich also made the All-Rookie Team. BU tied for the most selections of any team in the conference.

2017 TOURNAMENT LINEUP LOOKS DIFFERENT FROM 2016 VERSION
Binghamton graduated just two starting fielders from its 2016 championship team and was poised to return seven starters. But there are four other losses that have had an impact on the 2017 squad. Starting corner outfielders Daniel Franchi (redshirting with injury) and Chris McGee (sitting out) were lost before the season began and now BU has lost three of its four starting infielders in the last month (detailed note below). So now only three of the nine starting position players are back to LeLacheur Park to try and guide the Bearcats to back-to-back titles.

BAND-AID BEARCATS
Binghamton has been hit hard by key injuries this spring - the latest one taking senior captain and all-conference first baseman Brendan Skidmore out of the lineup. Skidmore was injured in a collision at first May 14 at Stony Brook, ending his season. Skidmore led the team in RBI at the time (32) and started 148 games in his career. Four weeks earlier (April 18), BU lost its two starting middle infielders to injury. Junior shortstop Paul Rufo (.347) and junior second baseman Luke Tevlin (.327), sporting the second and third-highest averages on the team, started their final games of the season before injuries knocked them out. So the Bearcats have now lost three-fourths of their starting infield in the last five weeks.

SENIORS LOOKING FOR THIRD TITLE
Binghamton has six seniors - five of whom have two America East titles and accompanying NCAA appearances. Seniors Eddie Posavec, Darian Herncane, Brendan Skidmore, Nicholas Liegi and Jake Cryts are gunning for their third conference crown. Senior infielder Henry Pellicciotti is looking for his second.

IMPROBABLE COMEBACK OVER HARTFORD AT 2016 TOURNAMENT
Last year in Lowell, Binghamton produced a remarkable nine-run ninth inning to erase a 6-0 hole and defeat Hartford 9-6 in a winner's bracket game on Day 2. Catcher Jason Agresti's walk-off grand slam ended the contest and propelled BU into the championship game the next day, where they beat Stony Brook 6-3 for the crown. The nine runs in the final at-bat was believed to be the most in conference tournament history. It was the second big walk-off rally vs. Hartford in 2016. On April 17 BU rallied for six runs in the ninth inning to stun Hartford, 10-9 at home.

ROLLING VS. AE OPPONENTS
In the last two regular seasons plus the 2016 America East tournament, Binghamton is a combined 37-9 against America East opponents.

PREMIER PITCHING
Binghamton enters the tournament with the nation's 14th-lowest earned run average (3.34). The Bearcats also rank 18th in WHIP (1.23), 19th in shutouts (6) and 24th in hits allowed per nine (7.94). After the opening New Mexico series where BU pitchers went straight from the indoor gym to Albuquerque and gave up 29 runs in three games, the staff ERA has been 3.01 over the last three months — less than half of its opponents' average (6.05). In the conference, BU's starting three pitchers (Gallagher, Wloczewski, Wegmann) are all among the top-6 in ERA and opposing batting average. All three were all-conference selections with Gallagher and Wloczewski earning first team honors and Wegmann following on the second team.

ONE OF THREE TEAMS ABOVE MASON-DIXON LINE TO GET TO NCAAS 3-IN-4 YEARS
Binghamton is one of just 28 teams (among 295) across the country to advance to the NCAA Regionals in three of the last four years and one of just three (Bryant, Columbia) north of the Mason-Dixon line to do it.