LEXINGTON, Va. - Host VMI (5-4) collected 16 hits and used a seven-run seventh inning to pull away from Binghamton baseball (2-5) 13-9 Friday afternoon at Gray-Minor Stadium. The game was the first of a three-game weekend series and featured 29 hits and 22 runs. 

The Bearcats trailed 13-3 before scoring the game's last six runs. After plating five in the eighth, BU loaded the bases in the ninth and pushed across one run before stranding two with the tying run in the on-deck circle. Binghamton was outhit 16-13 and left 11 men on base.

Sophomore left fielder Tommy Reifler went 3-for-5 and graduate center fielder Garrett Matheny belted a 3-run home run - his first as a Bearcat - to lead BU's offense. Junior second baseman Cavan Tully and freshman third baseman Devan Bade had two RBI apiece. Freshman DH Evin Sullivan had two hits to raise his team-best batting average to .421. 

Junior starter Thomas Babalis (L, 1-1) entered the game with a paltry 0.87 ERA but gave up three earned runs in 4.2 IP. Babalis struck out five before giving way to BU's bullpen, which surrendered the final eight runs as the Keydets scored in four of their final five innings. 

Matheny's blast came in a five-run eighth inning. Sophomore Andrew Tan and senior shortstop Jake Evans hit back-to-back 1-out singles and Tully hit an RBI single before Matheny bumped his team-leading RBI count to seven. The fifth run came in on a wild pitch. Tully then drove in his second run with an RBI single in the ninth. 

Bade had RBIs in the first inning and fifth innings, with the latter run tying the score at 3-3. But the Keydets responded with two in the bottom of the frame and added another in the sixth before the decisive seven-run outburst in the seventh.

The teams continue the weekend set with a 2 p.m. game on Saturday.