VESTAL, N.Y. - After a day delay, Binghamton baseball begins its postseason when the sixth-seeded Bearcats (21-28) face third-seeded NJIT (24-26) in an America East tournament elimination game at 11 a.m. Thursday at Bearcats Baseball Stadium. The game was pushed back from its originally-scheduled Wednesday night start after rain and lightning settled in the Binghamton area. The tournament will now have three games on Thursday and three games on Friday to get back on schedule.   

General admission adult tickets are $12 and general admission youth (14 & under) tickets are $6. Fans can purchase here.

Binghamton will face NJIT for the fourth time in the last eight days after the teams played a three-game series in New Jersey over the weekend. The Highlanders took two of three games but the Bearcats won the crucial finale, 12-7, on Saturday, to clinch a playoff spot. 

Thursday's game will also mark the third straight year the two teams meet in the tournament. It's a rematch of last year's tournament-opening, elimination game in which Binghamton toppled NJIT 14-6 to start a playoff run that took the Bearcats to the championship round, where they lost to Maine. Two years ago, Binghamton toppled NJIT 20-5 in its tournament opener in Orono. Binghamton has advanced to the finals in three of the last four conference tournaments and won the title in 2022. 

Senior ace Gabe Driscoll gets the ball in what is expected to be another duel with NJIT lefty ace Aidan Kidd. Both pitchers are two-time all-conference selections. Last Thursday, they squared off against each other and Driscoll departed with a 3-0 lead before NJIT rallied for a 7-4 win. In two outings against NJIT this season, Driscoll has a 1.54 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 11.2 innings. 

The Bearcats will likely be without two starters at the top of the lineup, continuing an uphill battle with injuries in 2024. The playoff starting lineup will be the 49th different lineup in 50 games this spring. Additionally, the nine players in the opening-day lineup from February have combined to miss 75 man-games to injury. 

With a win Thursday morning, Binghamton would advance to face top-seeded Bryant at 3 p.m. Thursday in the start of the double-elimination portion of the tournament. A loss would end the Bearcats' season.