BALTIMORE, Md. – Binghamton baseball (10-10, 10-10 America East) rallied for a 6-4 win in Game 2 to gain a doubleheader split with UMBC (14-14, 9-14 AE) Saturday evening at Alumni Field. The host Retrievers took the opener 14-9.

In the nightcap, the lead changed hands four times with BU hanging on after pulling ahead with a three-run seventh inning.

Down 4-3 in the seventh, BU put its first five hitters on base – two walks, a hit batter and a single by senior right fielder Daniel Franchi. They tied it on a walk by senior third baseman Justin Drpich and then went ahead on a two-run single from sophomore first baseman Kevin Gsell.

Sophomore reliever Tanner Beang (W, 1-0) entered in the sixth and worked out of a jam in the seventh, leaving two Retrievers in scoring position. He then left a runner stranded in the eighth with an inning-ending strikeout and fanned two more in a 1-2-3 ninth. 

Earlier in the game, Drpich hit a solo home run in the fourth to trim BU's deficit to 2-1. Then in the sixth, he led off with a double and scored on a Gsell RBI single. Gsell scored three batters later on a sacrifice fly by junior shortstop Jake Evans to give the Bearcats a 3-2 lead.

But UMBC plated two in their half of the inning to reclaim the lead, 4-3, setting up BU's final rally in the seventh.

Gsell went 3-for-5 with three RBI and Drpich went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Franchi also had two hits, including a triple. Junior starter Josh Kopcza allowed just three hits in 5.2 innings and struck out five.

In the seven-inning opener, BU turned a first-inning 4-1 hole into a 7-4 late-inning lead, only to surrender 10 runs in the final two innings. In a messy fifth inning, the Retrievers plated five runs on just one hit. Then the hosts tacked on five more runs in the sixth to put the game away.

Down 4-1 early after a disputed UMBC three-run home run in the first inning, BU rallied with two runs in the second on a two-run shot from freshman catcher Kevin Reilly – his first collegiate home run.

Then in the fourth, the Bearcats batted around and scored four runs on three hits and three walks to take a 7-4 lead. Sophomore second baseman Zac Taylor (2-for-4, RBI) delivered a two-out, RBI double to put BU ahead 5-4 and two more runs came around on bases-loaded walks.

Reilly went 2-for-2 with 3 RBI, sophomore left fielder Colin Mason went 3-for-4 and senior right fielder Daniel Franchi added two hits and two RBI.

Binghamton heads to Long Island next weekend to face league-leading Stony Brook.