VESTAL, N.Y. - Junior second baseman
Nick Roselli hammered a two-run home run in the bottom of the 13th inning to give Binghamton baseball (20-26, 9-12 America East) a 5-3 walkoff win over visiting UMBC (23-22, 12-9 AE) Sunday afternoon at Bearcats Baseball Stadium.
The extra-innings win, Binghamton's fifth walkoff of the season, gave the Bearcats the series win and strengthened the team's playoff position. With three games remaining in the regular season, Binghamton sits in fifth place and can clinch a top-six playoff position with one more win.
After the teams alternated through four scoreless innings, including three extra-inning frames, Binghamton finally broke through in the 13th. Junior left fielder
Logan Haskell led off with a single and Roselli sent a 1-1 pitch well over the wall in right center for his sixth home run of the season. It capped a four-hit day for Roselli, who missed seven early-season weeks with an injury but now is hitting .362 with 12 RBI in 15 conference games. In the three-game series, Roselli went 8-for-13 (.615) with three home runs, two doubles and five RBI.
The co-hero of the game was Binghamton's bullpen, which posted eight consecutive shutout innings. After graduate starter
Spencer Howell worked five innings (the last three scoreless), the Bearcats brought in five relievers who combined to stymie UMBC with eight strikeouts and just five hits allowed. In all, Binghamton pitchers worked 11 scoreless frames until the offense could finally break through.
UMBC struck early with one run in the first and two in the second to build a 3-0 lead. The teams then played four scoreless frames before the Bearcats began their comeback in the seventh. Senior first baseman
Andrew Tan led off with a single and moved to second on a groundout. Senior DH
Isaiah Corry then hit an RBI single up the middle, scoring Tan and making it 3-1. With two outs, Haskell delivered an RBI double inside the third base bag to make it 3-2.
One inning later, the Bearcats tied it. Junior catcher
Zach Rogacki led off with a walk and Tan moved him to second with a sacrifice. Sophomore shortstop
Mike Stellrecht followed with an infield single and Rogacki came around to score when the UMBC first baseman couldn't cleanly catch the infield throw.
After freshman
Hayden Tarsia worked two scoreless innings, graduate
Theo Farynick retired five in a row to finish his two scoreless innings.
The Bearcats put runners on in every inning except the fourth but left a season-high 16 stranded.
Freshman
Jackson Mitchell entered in the 10th inning and worked three scoreless. He struck out the side in the 11th and 12th innings. After senior
John Lumpinski got the first out of the 13th, freshman
Conner Griffin entered and worked out of a two-on, one-out jam with back-to-back popups to stifle the threat. The Bearcats then came through with the winning runs in the bottom of the 13th.
Corry went 3-for-5 with an RBI and Haskell had two hits and an RBI.
Binghamton closes out the regular season with a three-game set at NJIT Thursday-Saturday. The Bearcats can still finish anywhere from third to seventh in the standings. Regardless of its place, Binghamton will host the six-team championship May 22-25.
NOTES
The 13-inning game was Binghamton's longest since dropping a 2-1, 14-inning season-opening game at Lamar on Feb. 18, 2022 ... it's tied for the longest America East game in Binghamton's history (a 9-8 loss at Bryant on May 13, 2023 also went 13) ... the walkoff was Binghamton's school-record fifth of the season with the previous four being 8-7 over St. Bonaventure on March 12, 7-5 over NJIT on March 16 (10 inn.), 11-10 over Canisius on March 26 (9 inn.) and 4-3 over Albany on April 19 (10 inn.).
