The Maine baseball team opened up conference play Sunday, splitting a pair of America East matchups with Binghamton at the Binghamton Baseball Complex in Vestal, New York.
In the opener, Maine got three hits and three RBI and a great pitching outing from Nick Silva to pick up an 8-0 win. Brogan Searle-Belanger helped the Black Bears open the scoring in the top of the second with a sacrifice fly RBI. Maine made it 2-0 in the third when Joe Bramanti hit an RBI single, then extended to 5-0 when Danny Casals hit a two run homer in the fifth and Sardinas added a solo shot in the sixth. Sardinas got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the seventh making it 6-0, before Searle-Belanger added his second RBI of the day with a single in the ninth, and Sardinas added his third with a double in the same frame. Silva (1-3) picked up his first win of 2019, allowing no runs, six hits, three walks, and two strikeouts in 8.0 innings. Shane Marshall led the Bearcats with two hits, while Nick Gallagher (0-3) suffered the pitching loss.
In the second game, Binghamton got a solid pitching effort from their ace Ben Anderson to take down Maine 4-1 to salvage a split of the doubleheader. Anthony Beduri reached on a fielders choice in the first to score Daniel Franchi from third to make it 1-0 Bearcats. The Bears tied it on a sacrifice fly from Kevin Doody in the third, before Alex Baratta hit an RBI double and Kevin Gsell added an RBI single in the bottom half of the inning to put the Bearcats back up for good 3-1. Marshall added an RBI single in the fourth to end the scoring. Maine had chances to get back into the game, including the sixth inning when Casals singled and Colin Ridley doubled to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Anderson though struck out Bramanti, Cody Pasic, and Caleb Kerbs all swinging consecutively to end the threat. Maine had four players with one hit each, while Marshall had three hits for Binghamton. Cody Laweryson (0-2) took the loss on the mound for the Black Bears, allowing two earned runs, six hits, with two walks, and six strikeouts in 4.0 innings. Anderson (3-1), allowed just one run, four hits, two walks, with 10 strikeouts in his 6.0 innings. Binghamton is now 8-9 (1-1 America East), while Maine dropped to 2-18, 1-1. The Bears open up a three game conference series at Stony Brook on Saturday.
