Diamond Bucs to begin regional play against the Bearcats

East Carolina will meet Binghamton at 7pm on Friday night at Clark-LeClair Stadium

Coach Tim Sinicki and his Bearcats will be playing the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament game on Friday night when they face top-seeded East Carolina.

Binghamton (29-20), which joined Division I in 2002, won its third straight America East regular season title and tied the school record for wins—which was set last season. The Bearcats dropped three of four to Vermont to close the regular season, but rebounded to win the tournament title and claim the league’s automatic bid.

While the programs have never met before on the diamond, Sinicki is well aware of the success that the Pirate program has had over the last decade. The Western Carolina alumnus was a college teammate of former East Carolina coach Keith LeClair.

The Bearcats, who have not played in front of a crowd larger than 747 this season, will be faced with playing in an atmosphere they’ve not experienced. East Carolina averaged nearly 3,000 per game and there’ll be over 4,000 on hand for Friday’s contest.

Binghamton will also be facing the toughest opponent it has all season. It has only played seven games versus the RPI Top 100 (per Warren Nolan RPI). In those contests, the Bearcats went 1-6. Their lone victory came in the second game of the season when they won the middle game of three-game set at Dallas Baptist (#39-Warren Nolan), 3-1. Two weeks later, they lost all four games at New Mexico (#92-Warren Nolan) by a 66-9 combined score—which included a 30-2 blowout.

The Lobos, who hit .363 as a team with 158 doubles, are the only team that the Bearcats have faced that swing the bats in a similar or better fashion to what the potent Pirates’ line-up they’ll see Friday night does.

East Carolina will likely see Binghamton’s junior righty Murphy Smith.

Smith, who has compiled a 7-2 mark and 2.41 ERA, has limited opponents to a .219 clip through 86 innings of work. Against the Lobos, though, he was roughed up for 11 runs—six earned—on 14 hits in 4.2 innings. In his most recent outing—the conference tourney opener versus Vermont, Smith went seven and allowed five runs—two earned—on seven hits. He struck out seven and walked two.

Smith will face a Pirate line-up that is one of the most potent in college baseball, as each starter is hitting .317 or better.

East Carolina is hitting .341 as a team and slugging a stellar .549. The Pirates have hit 95 home runs and 143 doubles. Six ECU players have ten or more home runs while seven have ten or more doubles.

Senior second baseman Ryan Wood leads the club with his .387 mark. He is tied for second on the team in home runs (13) while also ranking second in doubles (20).

Sophomore centerfielder Trent Whitehead, who is second on the team in hitting (.380), has done a tremendous job of setting the table for Billy Godwin’s club. The Pirates’ leadoff man leads the team with 22 doubles and has committed just one error in center field.

Senior leftfielder Stephen Batts is tops on the team with 14 round-trippers while ranking second in RBI (61). He also has the most stolen bases on the team, as he’s swiped 18 in 20 attempts.

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Designated hitter Kyle Roller, who has started all 59 games, has hit 13 home runs and driven in a team-high 65 runs.

Binghamton has also swung the bats well. The Bearcats are hitting .319 and have demonstrated good power with a .473 slugging mark.

Dave Ciocchi, the first baseman, leads the way with a .375 average. Outfielder Corey Taylor tops his club in home runs (15), doubles (12) and RBI (51).

It appears that they and the other Bearcat bats will face the Pirates’ Friday night starter Chris Heston. Heston (7-0, 3.44) has struck out 85 in 86.1 innings and opponents are hitting just .234 against him.

NOTES:

*East Carolina is a combined 6-0 in the two previous regionals it hosted.

*Projected Binghamton starter Murphy Smith has increased his velocity range by ten miles an hour since arriving on campus. His fastball was in the 79-82 range in high school.