ORONO, Maine – Sophomore DH
Todd Abraham drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the 11
th inning and redshirt freshman reliever
Ben Griffith set down the side in order in the bottom to lift Binghamton baseball (29-24) to a scintillating 6-5 extra-innings victory over top-seeded and defending champion Bryant (36-19-1) in the winner-take-all game Sunday afternoon at Maine's Mahaney Diamond. With the win, the Bearcats captured the program's sixth America East title and earn the conference's automatic berth into the 64-team NCAA Championship for the second time in the last four years.
The Bearcats will gather for the NCAA Selection Show Watch Party at noon Monday at the Baseball Complex VIP Lounge to watch the brackets unveiled live on ESPN2. The Regionals start Friday, May 30 at 16 different campus locations across the country.
With the score tied at 5-5, junior second baseman
Zack Kent led off the 11
th with a sharp single to center. Senior left fielder
Logan Haskell followed with a bunt and beat out the throw to first to put two on with no outs. A sacrifice bunt by junior shortstop
Mike Stellrecht moved both runners up. Abraham then drove an 0-2 pitch to left that was caught, but Kent beat the throw to the plate for the go-ahead run.
Griffith then shut down the Bulldogs with a fly out, groundout and infield pop-up to end the game. He retired all eight Bryant hitters he faced in 2.2 spotless innings. Five Bearcat pitchers combined to hold Bryant to eight hits over 11 innings.
"All year long I wasn't sure how good this team was ...but I knew we had tremendous spirit and fight," 33rd-year head coach
Tim Sinicki said. "Yes we are talented ... but we always found ways to win ball games and never gave up. I'm so proud of the kids ... It's been a long week in beautiful Maine ... but we're happy to be coming home with a championship."
The Bearcats, who averaged 11.2 runs in the five tournament games, dropped the first game of the championship round, 7-3 earlier on Sunday, setting up the winner-take-all final. Bryant had won 11 of the previous 12 games head-to-head.
Binghamton scored five runs in three middle innings to take a 5-3 lead. In the fifth inning, graduate first baseman
Freddy Forgione put the Bearcats on top with a 2-out, 2-run home run. But Bryant tied the game with two runs in the eighth inning. The teams played through scoreless ninth and 10
th innings.
Abraham drove in two runs and senior third baseman
Devan Bade and freshman center fielder
Matt Bolton had two hits and an RBI apiece.
In the first game, the teams were tied 2-2 before Bryant scored five decisive runs in the fifth. Binghamton got one run back in the sixth but couldn't break through against the Bulldog bullpen.
Tournament MVP
Devan Bade (12 hits, 12 RBI in five games) led an offensive explosion that carried the Bearcats to 56 runs in the five games. The team set a tournament record with three consecutive games of 12+ runs. Joining Bade on the All-Championship team were graduate first baseman
Freddy Forgione (3 HR, 8 RBI), senior right fielder
Zach Rogacki (8 hits, 6 RBI) and junior second baseman
Zack Kent (9 hits, 9 RBI). In addition to his All-Championship team honors, Rogacki was also named the winner of the Elite 18 award for owning the highest GPA of any athlete in the championship round (3.75 GPA in biological sciences).
NOTES
Binghamton becomes the first America East team in 11 years to win four tournament games en route to the title … Binghamton also is the first No. 3 seed to win the title since the Bearcats did it back in 2014 … Binghamton has now won 12 combined regular season and tournament titles in the last 18 years – the most of any America East program.
