ORONO- The Binghamton Bearcats baseball team used some outstanding pitching and some timely hitting on Saturday afternoon to help sweep the Maine Black Bears in a America East Conference doubleheader at a chilly Mahaney Diamond. It was the opening conference games for both teams.
In the opening game both teams were unable to scratch anything across in the first four innings. Jonah Normandeau for Maine and Jake Cryts for Binghamton were the starting pitchers.
After both teams only had three hits in the first four innings, the Bearcats came alive in the top of the fifth. Jason Agresti lead off with a long double to left center and was singled in by the next batter Paul Rufo to make it 1-0. That would be followed by suicide squeeze bunt by David Schanz, a two run single by Brendan Skidmore, Pat Britt reached on an error to score a run and a wild pitch scored another one as the Bearcats took control 6-0.
Maine was shut down by Cryts (1-3) who allowed just three hits in seven innings and had seven strikeouts. Maine got on the board late with a solo home run from freshman Danny Casals, his second of the year in the bottom of the eighth. Normandeau (0-2) was tagged in the loss and ended up going 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits, six earned runs, with one walk and one strikeout.
In the second game, Maine would run out their ace to salvage the split as former Bangor High standout Justin Courtney would take the hill.
In a scoreless game in the third inning, Courtney would get touched up by the number eight hitter in the Bearcat lineup as Darian Herncane would hit a solo homer to left to make it 1-0. Binghamton extended the lead in the fifth as Reed Gamache slapped an RBI single and was followed up by a long run homer to left center by Skidmore to make it 4-0.
Maine was kept in check by Mike Bunal (1-3) who started on the mound for Binghamton. Bunal went the distance 7.0 innings, allowing only a run, four hits, one walk and 10 strikeouts.
Binghamton (6-14, 2-0) padded their lead in the sixth inning and knocked Courtney out of the game on RBI hits from CJ Krowiak and Chris McGee to make it 6-0. Agresti made it 8-0 in the top of the seventh with a two run homer before Maine got their lone run on a solo homerun from Kevin Stypulkowski in their last at bat to finish off the scoring.
Courtney (1-2) took the loss, allowing five earned runs, 10 hits, three walks and a strikeout in 5.2 innings thrown.
Maine is now 5-17 overall and 0-2 in America East and have lost five games in a row. Maine will try to salvage one game of this series on Sunday afternoon when it hosts Binghamton again at 1 p.m.
Game 1
Bingh 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0- 6 9 0
Maine 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0- 1 5 2
Left on base- Bing 6, Maine 6
Game 2
Bingh 0 0 1 0 3 2 2- 8 12 0
Maine 0 0 0 0 0 0 1- 1 4 0
Left on base- Bing 7 Maine 2
