Binghamton Ready for Electric Atmosphere Against Host West Virginia

The Binghamton Bearcats (31-20) have arrived in Morgantown and will take on the over all No. 16 seed West Virginia Mountaineers (39-14) in the first opening round of the Morgantown regional in NCAA tournament at Kendrick Family Ballpark.

"It's a pleasure and an honor to be here in Morgantown," Binghamton head coach Tim Sinicki. "Being located in upstate New York, we travel a lot early in the season, and I'm used to seeing wild, wonderful West Virginia when we're driving down 81. So, I'm sure tomorrow night it's going to be wild. I'm hoping it's not too wonderful for the fans of West Virginia, but we're thrilled and we're looking forward to having an opportunity to compete against West Virginia tomorrow night."

Binghamton earned its seventh postseason bid after claiming the America East Conference Championship for the second consecutive season.

In 34 seasons, Sinicki has compiled a 930-922 overall record in his hometown. He took over the team in 1993 and presided over the the program's leap from DIII to D1, entering as an AEC member and has since claimed seven AEC regular season and tournament championships.

"Binghamton is home," Sinicki said. "It's where I grew up except for the time I spent away in college. I came back to the Binghamton area and after a few years of trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life, I got involved at the junior college level for one year and got the coaching bug right away.

"In the fall of 1992, Binghamton was looking for a new baseball coach. At that point, I just threw my hat into the ring and was fortunate enough that the people who were on that search committee -we must have had a really weak pool of applicants because I was still pretty green. I was very fortunate they entrusted me with the keys to the program.

"I just feel like there's something special about doing it in your hometown. All of our coaches are really kind of from the area for the most part and we have a tremendous amount of pride in our community. We feel like it's really good for the university and for the area to try to build a program and have some success.

"You see people in the stores that you've known forever and they get excited about the program and about the university in general, but our little piece of the university with Binghamton University baseball has become very special in our area. I think that's what's kept me doing it and kept me at Binghamton for this whole time."

Binghamton started the season 2-7 before capturing their first series of the season at Richmond. After dropping the first AEC series of the season, the Bearcats ripped off 11 straight conference wins to rise to the top of the league standings.

The Bearcats dropped the next two series before ending the regular season with consecutive series wins to claim the program's seventh regular season title and followed with three-straight wins in the AEC tournament for team's seventh AEC tournament title.

"This is one of the tougher teams that I've had that we've had as a program," Sinicki stated. "We've got really tough kids. Everyone's got a certain amount of talent to get to this point in their season and have the success that we've enjoyed and have been fortunate to have, but it hasn't been easy.

"We've rallied numerous times. We've had comebacks early in games, late in games, we've been down, but somehow someway this group, as you said, their DNA is that they're a tough group. We've been able to find ways to make a pitch when we needed to, move a runner when we needed to, hit a sacrifice fly when we needed to, make a defensive play when we needed to. Those things have all changed games. They may not have won games, but they've changed games and swung momentum our way a little bit.

"So, I think the toughness that this group brings, people really can see it when we play the game and I hope we get an opportunity to show that tomorrow night.

I never need anyone or want anyone to tell us how good we are and how talented we are because we try to recruit and bring in those types of players, but to hear people say, 'Gosh, you're tough. Your at-bats, you don't give at-bats away,' or 'Your pitchers, boy, they bear down when they need to make a pitch.' Those are the types of characteristics that I think we're known for right now with this ball club and it's helped us obviously get to this point."

Matt Bolton leads the team at the plate with a .349 batting average, 16 doubles, and four triples, while sitting second on the team in home runs (6), RBI (44), and runs (46). The sophomore enters the game on a seven-game hitting streak. He's also swiped a team-leading 15 bases.

Sophomores Tommy Popoff and Grunt Hunter lead the team in home runs with seven apiece. Popoff has also recorded a team-high 52 RBI, while Hunter has helped pace the Bearcats in limited action, appearing in 33 appearances, starting 26, and in 103 at bats.

Connor Griffin has been the rock of the Binghamton rotation. The junior right-hander threw five scoreless inning in two of his last three starts with a combined 11 strikeouts. He holds a 3-3 record in 14 starts with a 4.87 ERA and a team-high 62 strikeouts.

Mason Holloway is second on the team with nine starts and 49 innings pitched. The freshman right-hander is 3-3 on the season with a 5.14 ERA in 16 appearances.

Leading the Bearcats out of the bullpen is junior Jake Dally. He's made 20 appearances this season and is 0-1 with a 3.55 ERA.

Binghamton comes to Morgantown with just one NCAA tournament in six appearances.

This will be the first meeting between the two programs.

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