VESTAL, N.Y. - In front of a facility-record 954 fans, Binghamton baseball (26-24) battled top-seeded Stony Brook (31-21) to the wire in a 7-5 America East Championship game defeat Saturday afternoon at the Bearcats Baseball Complex. The runnerup finish was BU's third in program history, to go with four first-place trophies.  

Needing two wins over the Seawolves to capture the conference title, Binghamton led 5-2 before Stony Brook scored the game's final five runs. The Bearcats brought the tying run to the plate with no outs in the ninth before a blistering double-play ball ended the threat. Back in the seventh, a huge opportunity was wiped out when back-to-back Bearcats were punched out on called third strikes with runners on second and third. 

Playing its fifth game after winning three of four games from the No. 3 seed, BU's pitching staff was taxed try to match a Seawolves team that was playing just its third game of the tournament. Each team collected 13 hits and runs were scored in five straight middle innings.

Stony Brook scored twice off freshman starter Ryan Bryggman in the second inning before BU got one run back in the third. Then BU exploded for four runs to take a 5-2 lead in the top of the fourth. But the Seawolves chipped away with a run in the fourth, tied the score with two in the fifth and scored the go-ahead runs in the sixth. The teams played through three scoreless innings to end it.

Sophomore center fielder Shane Marshall finished off a brilliant tournament with three more hits. Marshall was one of three Bearcats to be named to the All-Championship Team, along with pitchers Nick Gallagher and Ben Anderson. Marshall went 12-for-21 (.571) with a tournament-record-tying four home runs and nine RBI in the five games. He won the opening tournament game wth a walk-off hit and easily could've been named the most outstanding player if not for bylaws. On Saturday, Marshall went 3-for-4 with a two-run home run. Marshall also set the school record for consecutive games with a home run (4). 

Freshman catcher Connor Aoki delivered a two-run double to center field to start BU's four-run uprising in the fourth. Junior second baseman Alex Baratta, senior designated hitter Sean Trenholm and freshman first baseman Kevin Gsell had two hits apiece. Trenholm got BU on the board with a two-out, RBI single in the third. 

Two days after pitching 8.1 innings in Binghamton's 18-4 win over Albany, senior Nick Gallagher offered two more gutsy innings on Saturday. Senior reliever Robert Brown also came back for multiple innings on back-to-back days to try and push BU into the "winner-take-all" game. But the Seawolves hit back-to-back home runs with the wind blowing out in the fifth and then a bunt single, walk and two-run double provided the deciding runs. 

NOTES
The Bearcats were picked to finish sixth in the preseason poll ... the team returned to the championship game for the first time since 2016, when they won their third title in a four-year span ... Marshall lifted his final season average to .376 - third-highest in program history. The first team all-conference outfielder tied for the team lead in hits (65 with Daniel Franchi) and led the team in home runs (6), triples (3) and RBI (35) ... Gallagher earned a spot on the All-Championship team after striking out eight and allowing just one earned run in BU's Game 2 win over Albany ... Anderson stifled Hartford in a 2-1 complete-game win in the Bearcats' tournament opener on Wednesday.