VESTAL, N.Y. - Visiting Maine snapped an early tie with six straight runs and the Black Bears (17-27, 11-7 America East) held off first-place Binghamton baseball (24-18, 13-5 AE) 7-3 in the series rubber game Sunday afternoon at Bearcats Baseball Complex.
The Bearcats still hold a two-game lead in the America East standings with six games remaining in the schedule.
Binghamton was held to three hits through five innings and trailed 6-1 before putting some traffic on the bases in the final four frames. The Bearcats loaded the bases in both the sixth and eighth innings and scored twice in the eighth to tighten the score. But Binghamton left six stranded in the final four innings.
After surrendering three runs in each of the third and fourth innings, Bearcat pitchers settled down and tossed five straight scoreless frames to end the game. Freshman
Soren Gregor (2.1 IP), sophomore
Vincent Luther (2.1 IP) and sophomore
Ben Griffith (1.0 IP, 2 K) kept Maine off the scoreboard.
Offensively, Binghamton totaled six hits - all singles - by six different players. Senior left fielder
Zack Kent delivered a 2-run single in the eighth to pull Binghamton to within four, down 7-3. But a strikeout with two runners on ended the threat and two fly balls in the ninth stranded the final Bearcat runner.
Binghamton plays its final non-conference game of the season on Tuesday when Cornell comes to town for a 6:30 p.m. start.
