Baseball and softball garners clean sweep at ECAC Championship

Playing post-season for the fourth time in the last six years, BU baseball scored 40 runs in four games, and rallied to win the program’s third ECAC crown and first as a Division II member.

Granted the number three seed, BU opened with a thrilling 7-6 victory over second-seeded Franklin Pierce (N.H.) in a game that went 11 innings. The Bearcats than dropped an 8-5 decision against top-seeded Dowling. Needing two wins against the host Golden Lions to claim the title, BU did just that, exploding for a 17-10 win, followed by another slugfest — an 11-8 victory in the final game. In the process, coach Tim Sinicki’s squad tied the school the record for wins in a season, previously set by Sinicki’s 1997 team (26-10-1). Junior third baseman Tim Macko (Liverpool/Liverpool) led the offensive heroics, earning tournament MVP honors after collecting three home runs and five RBI. Opening the tournament against a Franklin Pierce team that had swept BU earlier in the spring, sophomore pitcher Jeff Montani (Liverpool/Liverpool) allowed just one earned run in 8 1/3 innings, and the Bearcats erupted for five runs in the 11th inning before sweating out the 7-6 win. Senior catcher Eric Mimeault (Terrebonne, Quebec) and sophomore shortstop Cesar Suero (Brooklyn/Bushwick) each delivered a two-run single, and senior Phil Goldstein (Amityville/Amityville) went 2 2/3 innings of relief for the win, striking out the final two batters to preserve the one-run margin. After an 8-5 setback to Dowling, BU was faced with the task of beating Dowling in back-to-back games to win the ECAC title. Nine hours and 28 BU runs later, The Bearcats raised the championship plaquere. In the two-game sweep, sophomore right fielder Tim Collar (Groton/Groton) went 5-for-10 with 4 RBI, and Macko went 4-for-9 with two home runs and four RBI. In the first game, BU trailed 8-7 before taking the lead for good with three runs in the sixth inning. In the final contest, BU jumped out to a 4-0 lead — thanks primarily to a three-run home run from freshman catcher Kyle Loucks (Johnson City/Johnson City) in the first inning. In the seventh inning, however, BU trailed, 8-7, before Macko smacked his second home run of the day, and BU put together five consecutive hits and plated five runs for a 10-6 lead. Montani pitched the final 1 2/3 for his first save of the season. Collar wound up hitting .421 in the four games, while Loucks drove in a team-best six runs. Binghamton’s offensive firepower prevented the Golden Lions (32-18) from earning an NCAA tournament berth, which they were in the running for heading into the weekend.

Softball Championship Most Valuable Player Jami Pier (Windsor, N.Y./Windsor) drilled a dramatic two-out, three-run home run to win game one, and Binghamton University rode the strong pitching of senior Jessica Ross in game two to defeat Mansfield University (Pa.) for the 2000 ECAC Mid-Atlantic Championship, Saturday on BU’s East Gym field. Binghamton posted victories of 4-1 and 1-0 to claim the best 2-out-of-3 format and capture the program’s first-ever ECAC crown.

The Bearcats (21-12-1) led game one, 1-0, before the visiting Mounties (21-19) pushed across the tying run with the help of two errors in the top half of the seventh inning. Then with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, freshman second baseman Melissa Lavin drew a walk, and junior first baseman Felicia Malarkey hit an infield single, bringing up Pier. The captain and four-year starting catcher drove a 2-1 pitch over the left center field fence for the game-winning hit. Junior pitcher Margaret Yerdon scattered five hits and did not allow an earned run for her 11th victory of the season.

In game two, Ross allowed three hits and struck out four, and BU plated the game’s lone run on an RBI groundout by Malarkey in the second inning. Pier helped preserve the shutout with a inning-ending tagout at home in the fourth inning. Sophomore second baseman Sarah Betke opened the inning with a single, and two outs later, attempted to score from second on a base hit by sophomore first baseman Kristen Lewis. Binghamton senior center fielder Mollie Lehman fired the ball home to Pier, who stretched to put the tag on a sliding Betke. Ross then retired the side in order in each of the last three innings, lowering her earned run average to 0.92 with her 10th win of the season.

Betke went 2-for-3 for Mansfield, which had won seven of its last eight games entering the tournament.