ORONO, Maine - Third-seeded Binghamton (26-23) set a tournament record with 12 runs in the seventh inning to rally past sixth-seeded UMBC (18-28) 14-8 in an opening elimination game of the Delta Dental America East Baseball Championship, hosted by Maine Wednesday night at Mahaney Diamond.
With the win, Binghamton advances to the double-elimination portion of the bracket, which begins Thursday. The Bearcats will face No. 2 NJIT at 3 p.m., following the game between No. 1 Bryant and No. 5 UAlbany.
Binghamton scored runs in only two innings but the one huge inning was more than enough. They grabbed an early 2-0 lead with a pair in the first. But UMBC tied it with two runs in the second and then tacked on one run in the fifth and three in the sixth. After collecting three hits in the first, Binghamton's league-leading offense was quiet with just one hit over five scoreless middle innings.
The Bearcats trailed 6-2 and were nine outs away from a frustrating season-ending loss before the record-setting seventh. They sent 17 batters to the plate and scored 12 runs on nine hits. The inning took 45 minutes and when it ended, Binghamton all-but-secured its fourth consecutive tournament win at Mahaney Diamond, dating back to the 2022 championship, which the Bearcats won in Orono.
Senior third baseman
Devan Bade had two clutch hits, including a grand slam, and drove in six runs in the seventh inning. His two-run single brought the Bearcats to within one, 6-5. Then later in the inning, Bade came up with the bases loaded and greeted a new UMBC reliever with his 10th homer of the season and second grand slam. That capped the onslaught and also gave Bade the RBI lead in the conference with 53. He has 13 multi-RBI games, including three with five or more.
Junior second baseman
Zack Kent had two hits in the seventh inning alone, including the tying RBI single with one out. The Bearcats took the lead when sophomore DH
Todd Abraham put down a perfect squeeze bunt. Junior shortstop
Mike Stellrecht followed with an RBI double before UMBC pitchers walked in two more runs to set up the Bade blast. Earlier in the inning, senior catcher
Evin Sullivan produced his 200th career hit with an infield single. Sullivan added another single in the frame and wound up 3-for-5 with an RBI.
Bade was 3-for-4 with the slam and six RBI. Kent went 3-for-5 with two RBI and senior right fielder
Zach Rogacki went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. It was Rogacki's double that got the Bearcats on the board in the seventh and began the rally.
Sophomore starter
Hayden Tarsia worked 4.1 innings and limited UMBC to two earned runs with five strikeouts. Senior
Chris Sleeper (W) was the sharpest of five Bearcat relievers with 1.2 hitless innings.
NOTES
Sullivan joins teammate Bade (223) in the 200-hit club ... only seven other Bearcats have accomplished the career feat ... graduate first baseman
Freddy Forgione drew a first-inning walk and in the process, set the school record for consecutive games reaching base, now at 33. That number broke a tie with Hall of Famer Jake Thomas (2014) ... Bade's grand slam is the fifth in Binghamton's America East tournament history (Jason Agresti vs. Hartford, 2016; TJ Wegmann vs. UAlbany, 2019;
Mike Stellrecht vs. NJIT, 2023,
Evin Sullivan vs. NJIT, 2023) ... the 12 runs in an inning breaks the program record, previously set when the Bearcats scored nine runs in the ninth to walk-off Hartford in the 2016 championship, which they went on to win.
