BINGHAMTON, New York -- The University of Maine baseball team defeated Binghamton in game three of the series 12-7 Saturday afternoon. Maine (19-33) stands in sixth place in the America East standings, while Binghamton (27-23) remains in first place.
Chris Murphy started on the mound for the Black Bears and N. Wegman for the Bearcats. Murphy pitched three innings, allowing one run on one hit and struck out three batters.
In the top of the third, Danny Casals doubled to left center driving in Caleb Kerbs for the first run of the game, Maine led 1-0.
Binghamton answered in the bottom half of the inning as Brendan Skidmore hit a sacrifice fly to center scoring one run tying the game at 1-1.
Kevin Stypulkowski homered to left field as the Black Bears regained the lead, 2-1 in the top of the fourth.
Justin Courtney came on in relief of Murphy, his first action since April 9 against NYIT. The Bearcats answered once again as they scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning. Daniel Franchi singled driving in one run to tie the game 2-2. David Schanz later hit a three run home run to left field to take their first lead of the game, 5-2.
Maine exploded for six runs on six hits in the top of the sixth. Brett Chappell started the rally with an RBI single to center scoring two as the Black Bears cut into the Binghamton lead, 5-4. Lou Della Fera later singled up the middle scoring one, to tie the game at 5-5. Jeremy Pena then singled to short, a throwing error by the Bearcats allowed Kerbs to score as Maine regained the lead, 6-5. Danny Casals then doubled to left center driving in two more Black Bear runs as Maine lead, 8-5.
In the top of the seventh, Kevin Stypulkowski was caught in a run down as Tyler Schwanz was able to score, Maine now had a 9-5 advantage.
Binghamton cut into the Black Bear lead with two runs in the bottom half of the inning, Jason Agresti hit a two run home run to left field, Maine now led 9-7.
In the top of the ninth, with two runners on, Kevin Stypulkowski hit his second homerun of the game, a three run bomb to right field as Maine opened up a 12-7 lead.
Jonathan Salcedo came in to pitch for the ninth inning, his first appearance of the year, and recorded one strikeout and allowed no hits or runs to secure the win.
Connor Johnson picked up the win (4-4).
Maine will travel to Lowell, Massachusetts for the opening round of the America East tournament beginning Wednesday May 25 at 3:00 p.m. as the #6 seed. The Black Bears are awaiting completion of America East play to determine their opponent the #3 seed in the America East conference.
