VESTAL, N.Y. - With a postseason berth still possible, Binghamton baseball (15-17, 15-17 America East) hosts regular season champion Stony Brook (26-16, 22-9 AE) in the final regular season series this weekend. The teams will play noon doubleheaders Friday and Saturday at downtown Rumbletown Stadium.

The Bearcats sit in third-place in the division standings two full games (plus tiebreak) behind second-place NJIT (19-17) for the final playoff spot. To play postseason, Binghamton needs at least three wins against the Seawolves in combination with three NJIT losses to UMBC in their final series. If the Highlanders split their four-game set with UMBC, BU would need to sweep Stony Brook to overtake NJIT. Essentially, NJIT's "magic number" is 3, meaning any combination of NJIT wins and Binghamton losses equaling three will end BU's season.

Binghamton dropped its last three games to NJIT last weekend and have lost five of six down the stretch. The team ranks fourth in the conference in hitting (.263), third in pitching (4.78) and second in fielding (.972). Seniors Daniel Franchi (.306), Alex Baratta (.305) and Shane Marshall (.304) are tightly bunched atop the hitting leaderboard. Sophomore Kevin Gsell has a team-high 20 RBI. On the mound, sophomore Thomas Babalis is finishing up an exceptional season. He ranks second in the America East in ERA (2.31) and third in opponent batting average (.196). He leads the league in complete games (4) and shutouts (3). 

Stony Brook began its season three weeks ahead of the Bearcats and after playing 11 non-conference games, jumped out of the gate with a 15-1 conference record. Since then, the Seawolves have gone just 7-8 over the last month but easily clinched the No. 1 overall seed and host role for the upcoming four-team America East tournament, where they are the defending champions (from 2019). Stony Brook ranks second in hitting (.269), first in pitching (3.81 ERA) and fourth in fielding (.967). 

Back on May 1-2, the teams met on Long Island and split a four-game series with BU taking games 1 and 3 and the host Seawolves grabbing 2 and 4. All the games were decided by four or more runs. Stony Brook leads the all-time series, which dates back to 1968, 60-41-1. Since both teams joined the America East in 2002, Stony Brook leads 52-36-1. The Seawolves have won 12 of the last 17 head-to-head. The teams have never played at Rumbletown Stadium, home of Binghamton's Double-A affiliate of the New York Mets. 

Projected Weekend Matchups
Friday, May 21 - noon (DH)
Game 1 (7 inn.): LHP Thomas Babalis (B) (4-3, 2.31 ERA) vs. LHP Jared Milch (SBU) (4-4, 3.51 ERA) | Live Stats | Video
Game 2 (9 inn.): RHP Jack Collins (B) (3-2, 3.06 ERA) vs. RHP Nick DeGennaro (SBU) (7-2, 3.08 ERA) | Live Stats | Video 

Saturday, May 22 - noon (DH)
Game 1 (7 inn.): RHP Ryan Bryggman (B) (1-3, 7.00 ERA) vs. RHP Brian Hermann (SBU) (3-3, 3.58 ERA) | Live Stats | Video
Game 2 (9 inn.): RHP Jake Miller (0-2, 6.97 ERA) (B) vs. RHP Sam Turcotte (SBU) (5-3, 2.59 ERA) | Live Stats | Video