America East Baseball News & Notes: The Final Weekend has Arrived

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Here we are, the final weekend of play in America East baseball. Last weekend three teams Binghamton, NJIT, and UMass Lowell all punched their ticket to join Maine for the baseball tournament that will begin next week. There are still spots left to be claimed by the remaining teams in the league which is why games that are played this weekend still have meaning to them. The only seed that has been locked up is the number one seed by Maine. Everything else is still in play. Let’s take a look at where we are.

The number two seed in the tournament is still up for grabs. Three teams have a shot at claiming that position and avoiding playing on the first day of the event. Binghamton (13-14) NJIT (14-13), and UMass Lowell (13-14) head into the final three games of the regular season with a chance to miss the first day of the tournament. Last weekend, Binghamton lost two of three at home to Stony Brook (19-8). The Seawolves took the first two games on Friday and Saturday night before the Bearcats came back and won a shortened five-inning game on Sunday, 12-5. Binghamton received solid pitching from Ryan Bryggman (5-5) who went the five and allowed eight hits and five earned runs. The offense was supplied by DH Kevin Reilly 2-for-2 (double and triple) 3 RBI and 2 RS and Devan Bade 2-for-2 (double) 3 RBI, and RS. The Bearcats finished their season on the road at UMBC (10-17).

NJIT had a chance to lock up the #2 seed last weekend against the Retrievers. Instead, they made things interesting by losing two of three. The Highlanders took Friday night’s game although they would need to survive a four-run ninth inning to win 7-6. On Saturday and Sunday, they were not so lucky. On Saturday, the top two hitters in the UMBC order did damage. Ian Diaz (3-3, 3 RS, 1 RBI) and Logan Doran (2-3, 2 RBI, 2 RS, 1 HR) were a problem. Highlanders starter Jake Rappaport, who went the first three, gave up nine hits and five earned runs. Shane Gorman came out of the UMBC bullpen to get the win with two innings of three-hit, one-run baseball. On Sunday, a back and forth game between the two was settled late. UMBC walked off with a 9-8 win on a sac-fly by Christian Easley that scored Justin Taylor with the winning run. Shane Gorman won his second game in a row by going 1.1 innings on Sunday and giving up only one hit. NJIT heads to Stony Brook to end their season, while UMBC has a two-game lead on Hartford for a spot in Maine. They will host Binghamton starting on Thursday.

The ball was flying out of Hartford last weekend. With the weather finally breaking, the ball was jumping out of Fiondella’s field. A total of 16 home runs were hit by the two teams. Keeping the ball down in the strike zone was difficult for both pitching staffs. The River Hawks did that a little bit better than the Hawks when all was said and done. Playing in what may be the smallest park in the conference on a warm weekend did no favors for the pitchers. On Friday night, a total of eight HRs were hit by both teams. But the top three hitters in the UMass Lowell lineup would prove to be the difference. Jacob Humphrey (3-6, 1 RS, ! RBI, 2 SB), Robert Gallagher (2-5, 2 RS, 2 RBI, 1 SB), and Gerry Siracusa (3-6, 3 RS, 4 RBI, 2 HR) were too much for Hartford to handle. The River Hawks got the win 14-9. On Saturday, the long ball would be the difference once again. Lowell took a one-run lead at 6-5 in the eighth on a three-run HR by Cedric Rose off of James Judenis. In the bottom of that inning, Donnie Cohoon launched a three-run home run of his own to left-center off of Matt Draper to give the Hawks a 9-6 lead. Will Nowak came on in the ninth to shut the door and Hartford picked up a 9-6 win. SS Tremayne Cobb JR went deep twice in the game for Hartford. On Sunday, the River Hawks did some pitching to get the series win. Four pitchers combined on a five-hit two-run effort, with Joshua Becker getting the win and seldom-used Henry Furnaro getting his first save of the season. Off the bench, Connor Kelly had a four-RBI game as Lowell left Hartford with a 6-2 victory.

Some scoreboard watching will be done by the above three teams to find out where they will end up once the regular season comes to an end. One thing they do not have to worry about is if they are playing come tournament time because that answer is yes. For Hartford and UMBC, it will come down to the last set of league games. UMBC has a two-game lead on Hartford. The Hawks are home to Maine, while UMBC does the same with Binghamton.

The America East Player of the Week is UMBC senior OF Ian Diaz. In the series vs NJIT, Diaz hit .750 with six runs scored and five RBI. For the week, Diaz hit. 643 and had an OPS of 1,762. This is his second career award.

The America East Pitcher of the Week is Ben Fero of Stony Brook. He threw 6.2 innings of scoreless baseball in getting the win over Binghamton last weekend. He struck out eight, allowing two hits, and two walks. This is his first career weekly award.

The America East Rookie of the Week is Ewin Sullivan of Binghamton. The catcher of the Bearcats batted .444 with a .545 OPS in the Stony Brook series. He drove in two runs and scored two more. This is his first weekly award.

That’s all for this week. We will be back next week and it’s all about the tournament in Maine.