VESTAL, N.Y. - Junior ace
Conner Griffin fired five scoreless innings and top-seeded Binghamton baseball (29-20) posted its first shutout of the season, beating fifth-seeded UMass Lowell (21-30), 3-0 in the America East tournament Thursday afternoon at Bearcats Baseball Stadium.
Griffin and two relievers combined for a six-hit shutout to move the Bearcats one-third of the way toward a second straight tournament title. With the win, the Bearcats advance to a winners' bracket game at 1 p.m. Friday against either No. 2 UMBC or No. 3 Maine, who are playing later in the day.
Griffin (W, 3-3) limited the River Hawks to just two hits with four strikeouts. Junior
Jake Dally followed with 2.2 shutout frames and sophomore
Aiden Milburn (S, 3) got the final four outs. Dally left two stranded in the sixth with two strikeouts and a groundout and then added another strikeout in the seventh. Milburn worked out of a threatening eighth inning and stranded two with an infield pop-up. Milburn was aided by a key pickoff by battery mate
Tommy Popoff, who snapped a throw down to classmate
Steven Kraus to erase the leadoff runner.
The Bearcats bunched their scoring into the first three innings before the teams played the final six without a run. Binghamton's offense was held in check most of the afternoon and had a narrow 7-6 edge in hits.
In the second inning, Binghamton senior left fielder
Zack Kent and Kraus opened with singles and junior DH
Zach Anderson reached when his sacrifice bunt resulted in an errant throw on the UML infield. With the bases loaded, senior shortstop
Mike Stellrecht hit s sharp single to put the Bearcats up 1-0. Two batters later, sophomore right fielder
Braylen Gonzalez doubled that lead with a sacrifice fly to left.
In the third, the Bearcats benefited from a pair of wild pitches to score the game's final run. Sophomore center fielder
Matt Bolton led off with a single, went to second on a Popoff groundout and came around on two pitches in the dirt.
Kent went 2-for-4 and five other Bearcats had one hit apiece.
The shutout was the team's sixth all-time in the America East tournament but first since 2014.
