Thomas Walter
Senior Writer
The baseball team dropped three consecutive one-run games to the Delaware Blue Hens last weekend, with the first two games on the road and the final game at home. The Orange and the Blue lost 13-12 in game one, 4-3 in game two and 5-4 in game three. The Bison also split two home games against Binghamton.
The first Delaware game proved to be a heartbreaker for the Bison. Pitcher Bryson Hough ’15 was lit up for 10 runs in 5.2 innings, and the Orange and the Blue went into the top of the eighth inning facing a 13-2 deficit. In a stunning comeback attempt, the Bison scored two runs in the eighth and then unloaded for eight runs in the ninth, but fell excruciatingly short with the bases loaded and could not complete the rally.
In the second game, the Bison entered the eighth inning with a 2-2 tie, but Delaware scored two in the bottom of the inning to take the lead. The Orange and the Blue got one back in the ninth, but once again were stopped short by one run.
Game three seemed like the Bison would finally reverse their bad fortune. Trailing 4-2 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Bison rallied for two runs thanks to RBI hits by Corey Furman ’14 and Carter Bumgardner ’13 to knot the score 4-4. After trading zeros in the 10th, the Bison once again fell behind on a wild pitch, and this time could not tie it up as they suffered their final loss to Delaware.
Furman hit in all three games and was able to extend his current team-leading six-game hitting streak. Bumgardner also performed well, going 7-13 in the three games with the Blue Hens. Bumgardner scored a pair of runs in game one, and had a clutch RBI in game three to complete a two-run rally and send the final game in this series to extra innings.
Things began to get a little better as the Orange and Blue won the first game versus Binghamton 3-1. Behind strong pitching from Andrew Andreychik ’16 and RBIs from Robb Scott ’13, Rob Krentzman ’15 and Brett Ashley ’14, the Bison were able to break their seven-game losing streak.
In game two, the Bison again came back from a deficit as they erased a three-run Binghamton lead in the sixth inning, only to cough up the lead in the seventh and drop another one-run game.
The Orange and Blue will head into Patriot League play this weekend on the road against Holy Cross.