NCAA Regional: Minnesota 8, Binghamton 5
Jun 04, 2016 | Baseball
COLLEGE STATION--Jordan Smith went 3-for-3 with his second home run of the weekend to help Minnesota keep its season alive with an 8-5 win over Binghamton Saturday afternoon in the NCAA College Station Regional.
The Gophers (35-21) snapped a four-game losing skid with the victory and advance to face the loser of the Texas A&M/Wake Forest game on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Bearcats, making their third NCAA appearance in the last four seasons, end their season at 30-25.
It was a scoreless affair until UM batted around in the fifth, plating five runs and chasing Binghamton starter Jake Cryts. Dan Motl opened the scoring with an infield single, then Terrin Vavra followed with a double to the gap in right center to make the score 3-0 and chase Cryts from the game. Matt Fiedler doubled down the left field line to bring home Vavra with the fourth run, and Micah Coffey added an RBI single to extend the lead to five.
Binghamton would answer with a five-run bottom half of the frame, aided with several walks and a wild pitch, tying the game on a two-run single by Eddie Posavec. Following that hit, a 58-minute rain delay seemed to quell the Bearcats momentum and upon resumption relief pitcher Ty McDevitt ended the frame with one pitch.
The Gophers scored two in the sixth, highlighted by an RBI triple by Toby Hanson inside the bag at first, and tacked on an insurance run in the eighth on Smith's home run.
The game started 40 minutes late after a quick but heavy rain delayed the preparation of the field.
Binghamton vs Minnesota Game Notes
- In the first ever meeting between the two schools, Minnesota recorded their first win since May 20, ending their four game losing streak and moves forward to take the elimination game, that included a 55-minute rain delay.
- Binghamton falls to 1-8 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and remains winless against the Big 10 (0-4).
- Minnesota wins its first NCAA Tournament game since a 2010 victory over New Mexico. They improve to 6-1 against the current schools of the American East Conference.
- Minnesota starter Toby Anderson sent down the first 10 Bearcats he faced with the aid of five early groundball outs. The Golden Gopher staff only fanned two during the whole game but only surrendered five hits.
- Through the first four innings the teams combined for four hits and no runs, then in the fifth inning alone they combined for 10 runs on eight hits.
- With the long fifth, Anderson gave up his most runs in a ballgame since surrendering sixth to Campbell in February.
Minnesota exploded for a five-run fifth that opened the scoring and chased Binghamton starter Jake Cryts from the ball game. The Junior failed to pitch past the sixth inning for the eight consecutive game.
- Through the first four innings the teams combined for four hits and no runs, then in the fifth inning alone they combined for 10 runs on eight hits.
- After Binghamton's Eddie Posavec tied the game with a two-out two-RBI single in the fifth, the rain picked up and the meeting entered a delay that lasted just under an hour. Binghamton had put six consecutive batters reached base safely before the momentum was halted. When the game resumed, Binghamton flied out to wrap up the fifth.
- Minnesota outfielder Jordan Smith found his way on in all of his four plate appearances. The Junior recorded with two singles, a homer, three runs and a walk. The long ball was Smith's third on the season and his second in as many days after he homered against Wake Forest on Friday.
- Bearcat second baseman Reed Gamanche recorded the first Wake Forest hit of the ballgame in the fourth that brought his on-base streak to 27 games.
- The Golden Gopher bullpen kept Binghamton off the board in 4.1 innings of work, giving them a combined 7.1 scoreless innings in the regional.
Binghamton quotes
Head Coach Tim Sinicki
Opening Statement…
"I thought our guys did a good job competing today, as they have all season. A lot of credit goes to Minnesota. They did a great job taking advantage of some mistakes we made, some pitches, and put the ball in play in some clutch situations. I think that was the difference in the game. We fought back the entire game and late I thought we hit some balls on the barrel that if they found a little grass it might be a different story right now. They have good athletes on that team. They track them down. Again, a lot of credit to them for winning and advancing. A lot of credit to our guys for competing the way they did the last two days. I'm proud of them for that, and I'm proud of them for this season."
On the rain delay during the fifth inning…
"It only hurt us in the fact that we had things going our way and they were on the ropes a little bit making a pitching change. To come out from that, I thought Jason Agresti put a good swing on the very first pitch after the rain delay. Barreled it up and hit it right at a guy. To their credit, they came back after the rain delay in their first series of at bats and were able to put two runs on the board. I don't think it hurt us, it didn't just come at a great time. It'd be nice to go back and see what happened if it didn't come at that time. But it did, and so we tried to move on from it and just couldn't get the lead and couldn't claw back enough to tie things up."
On the end of the season…
"I thought we competed very well. Anytime you have to take on the SEC champion and Big Ten champion in a regional like this and play as competitively as we did, with giving ourselves a chance to win each ballgame, I'm really happy for the program and I'm really happy for the guys on this team, especially the five seniors we had. They made their mark in our program's history and they'll never be forgotten because of it."
Senior second baseman Reed Gamache
On the five-run fifth inning…
"We've been doing that all year. Never any panic in our team. We were proud of our lineup and our whole dugout for rallying around us every inning. It's guy to guy. It's never one big swing that's going to change it. It's guy to guy just moving along, and I'm just very proud of our team."
Senior third baseman David Schanz
On the team's defense…
"I think our defense is something that we've prided ourselves on all year. We do a lot of work in practice on it. We make sure that we know that if we keep scores where they are that our offense can produce runs and can come from any deficit. We've always said good pitching, great fielding, making all the routine plays, is a good recipe for a win. I think that our fielding definitely kept the score where it was and that's definitely something that we emphasize and try to do every single game."
Minnesota quotes
Head Coach John Anderson
Opening Statement…
"First of all, I want to congratulate Binghamton on an outstanding season. They have an outstanding team and they're well coached. They play the game the right way and they play hard. They have nothing to hang their heads about. I thought they played two outstanding games and they end up 0-2 in the tournament so I just want to congratulate them first and foremost. Second of all, it was a long day obviously, the rain delays and all the stuff that happened both during the game and before. I thought our kids found a way to stay focused for nine innings and we had a bad inning in there after we finally spent a long time since we had a big inning. I think we finally were able to get a big inning when we put consecutive at bats together and then we went out there and gave the momentum right back to them but obviously Toby Hanson just started out the game attacking the strike zone and then he went out there after we got our five put on the board there. In the fifth, I just thought he lost his aggressiveness, he didn't attack the zone, walked two people and big innings come from walk, hits and errors and that's what that inning was about but Ty [McDevitt] warmed up and then we got the lightning and we debated about what to do there and decided to go in the bullpen. He said he felt good so he just went out there and did a fantastic job of just filling up the strike zone with strikes and I thought we made some outstanding plays behind them. I thought our team today looked more like it did for a lot of the season this year. I think we got our swagger back a little bit on offense so hopefully this will keep us going in this tournament."
Senior pitcher Ty McDevitt
On rain delay and his confidence level…
"Well first of all I think the grounds crew did a phenomenal job of getting the field ready and making sure that the time that I had to sit was quite limited. I'm pretty sure that if I would've had to sit another hour or so, especially when you get the amount of rain that we got, I'm pretty sure things would've have went a little bit different so great job to them. In regards to getting the first out, yeah it helps you get your confidence back. It's a one pitch out and then most of all, it gets the momentum going back to you. It's definitely a tough thing to come out after the big inning that we had and give up five runs but being able to get the guys swinging as quick as possible is best in that situation. We went back and put two up there and gave ourselves a little bit of breathing room. More for momentum than anything, it's definitely helpful."
Junior outfielder Jordan Smith
On his game…
"Right now, I'm just I'm seeing the ball a little better than I was at the end of the year. For me, confidence is a big thing. Stepping in the box with confidence helps me a lot. I get in trouble when I don't have confidence up there so just tracking the ball and seeing the ball well helps me a lot."
On his two home runs in tournament…
"Texas is nice. I had one all year so I mean two these last two games might be a little shocker who knows."
The Gophers (35-21) snapped a four-game losing skid with the victory and advance to face the loser of the Texas A&M/Wake Forest game on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Bearcats, making their third NCAA appearance in the last four seasons, end their season at 30-25.
It was a scoreless affair until UM batted around in the fifth, plating five runs and chasing Binghamton starter Jake Cryts. Dan Motl opened the scoring with an infield single, then Terrin Vavra followed with a double to the gap in right center to make the score 3-0 and chase Cryts from the game. Matt Fiedler doubled down the left field line to bring home Vavra with the fourth run, and Micah Coffey added an RBI single to extend the lead to five.
Binghamton would answer with a five-run bottom half of the frame, aided with several walks and a wild pitch, tying the game on a two-run single by Eddie Posavec. Following that hit, a 58-minute rain delay seemed to quell the Bearcats momentum and upon resumption relief pitcher Ty McDevitt ended the frame with one pitch.
The Gophers scored two in the sixth, highlighted by an RBI triple by Toby Hanson inside the bag at first, and tacked on an insurance run in the eighth on Smith's home run.
The game started 40 minutes late after a quick but heavy rain delayed the preparation of the field.
Binghamton vs Minnesota Game Notes
- In the first ever meeting between the two schools, Minnesota recorded their first win since May 20, ending their four game losing streak and moves forward to take the elimination game, that included a 55-minute rain delay.
- Binghamton falls to 1-8 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and remains winless against the Big 10 (0-4).
- Minnesota wins its first NCAA Tournament game since a 2010 victory over New Mexico. They improve to 6-1 against the current schools of the American East Conference.
- Minnesota starter Toby Anderson sent down the first 10 Bearcats he faced with the aid of five early groundball outs. The Golden Gopher staff only fanned two during the whole game but only surrendered five hits.
- Through the first four innings the teams combined for four hits and no runs, then in the fifth inning alone they combined for 10 runs on eight hits.
- With the long fifth, Anderson gave up his most runs in a ballgame since surrendering sixth to Campbell in February.
Minnesota exploded for a five-run fifth that opened the scoring and chased Binghamton starter Jake Cryts from the ball game. The Junior failed to pitch past the sixth inning for the eight consecutive game.
- Through the first four innings the teams combined for four hits and no runs, then in the fifth inning alone they combined for 10 runs on eight hits.
- After Binghamton's Eddie Posavec tied the game with a two-out two-RBI single in the fifth, the rain picked up and the meeting entered a delay that lasted just under an hour. Binghamton had put six consecutive batters reached base safely before the momentum was halted. When the game resumed, Binghamton flied out to wrap up the fifth.
- Minnesota outfielder Jordan Smith found his way on in all of his four plate appearances. The Junior recorded with two singles, a homer, three runs and a walk. The long ball was Smith's third on the season and his second in as many days after he homered against Wake Forest on Friday.
- Bearcat second baseman Reed Gamanche recorded the first Wake Forest hit of the ballgame in the fourth that brought his on-base streak to 27 games.
- The Golden Gopher bullpen kept Binghamton off the board in 4.1 innings of work, giving them a combined 7.1 scoreless innings in the regional.
Binghamton quotes
Head Coach Tim Sinicki
Opening Statement…
"I thought our guys did a good job competing today, as they have all season. A lot of credit goes to Minnesota. They did a great job taking advantage of some mistakes we made, some pitches, and put the ball in play in some clutch situations. I think that was the difference in the game. We fought back the entire game and late I thought we hit some balls on the barrel that if they found a little grass it might be a different story right now. They have good athletes on that team. They track them down. Again, a lot of credit to them for winning and advancing. A lot of credit to our guys for competing the way they did the last two days. I'm proud of them for that, and I'm proud of them for this season."
On the rain delay during the fifth inning…
"It only hurt us in the fact that we had things going our way and they were on the ropes a little bit making a pitching change. To come out from that, I thought Jason Agresti put a good swing on the very first pitch after the rain delay. Barreled it up and hit it right at a guy. To their credit, they came back after the rain delay in their first series of at bats and were able to put two runs on the board. I don't think it hurt us, it didn't just come at a great time. It'd be nice to go back and see what happened if it didn't come at that time. But it did, and so we tried to move on from it and just couldn't get the lead and couldn't claw back enough to tie things up."
On the end of the season…
"I thought we competed very well. Anytime you have to take on the SEC champion and Big Ten champion in a regional like this and play as competitively as we did, with giving ourselves a chance to win each ballgame, I'm really happy for the program and I'm really happy for the guys on this team, especially the five seniors we had. They made their mark in our program's history and they'll never be forgotten because of it."
Senior second baseman Reed Gamache
On the five-run fifth inning…
"We've been doing that all year. Never any panic in our team. We were proud of our lineup and our whole dugout for rallying around us every inning. It's guy to guy. It's never one big swing that's going to change it. It's guy to guy just moving along, and I'm just very proud of our team."
Senior third baseman David Schanz
On the team's defense…
"I think our defense is something that we've prided ourselves on all year. We do a lot of work in practice on it. We make sure that we know that if we keep scores where they are that our offense can produce runs and can come from any deficit. We've always said good pitching, great fielding, making all the routine plays, is a good recipe for a win. I think that our fielding definitely kept the score where it was and that's definitely something that we emphasize and try to do every single game."
Minnesota quotes
Head Coach John Anderson
Opening Statement…
"First of all, I want to congratulate Binghamton on an outstanding season. They have an outstanding team and they're well coached. They play the game the right way and they play hard. They have nothing to hang their heads about. I thought they played two outstanding games and they end up 0-2 in the tournament so I just want to congratulate them first and foremost. Second of all, it was a long day obviously, the rain delays and all the stuff that happened both during the game and before. I thought our kids found a way to stay focused for nine innings and we had a bad inning in there after we finally spent a long time since we had a big inning. I think we finally were able to get a big inning when we put consecutive at bats together and then we went out there and gave the momentum right back to them but obviously Toby Hanson just started out the game attacking the strike zone and then he went out there after we got our five put on the board there. In the fifth, I just thought he lost his aggressiveness, he didn't attack the zone, walked two people and big innings come from walk, hits and errors and that's what that inning was about but Ty [McDevitt] warmed up and then we got the lightning and we debated about what to do there and decided to go in the bullpen. He said he felt good so he just went out there and did a fantastic job of just filling up the strike zone with strikes and I thought we made some outstanding plays behind them. I thought our team today looked more like it did for a lot of the season this year. I think we got our swagger back a little bit on offense so hopefully this will keep us going in this tournament."
Senior pitcher Ty McDevitt
On rain delay and his confidence level…
"Well first of all I think the grounds crew did a phenomenal job of getting the field ready and making sure that the time that I had to sit was quite limited. I'm pretty sure that if I would've had to sit another hour or so, especially when you get the amount of rain that we got, I'm pretty sure things would've have went a little bit different so great job to them. In regards to getting the first out, yeah it helps you get your confidence back. It's a one pitch out and then most of all, it gets the momentum going back to you. It's definitely a tough thing to come out after the big inning that we had and give up five runs but being able to get the guys swinging as quick as possible is best in that situation. We went back and put two up there and gave ourselves a little bit of breathing room. More for momentum than anything, it's definitely helpful."
Junior outfielder Jordan Smith
On his game…
"Right now, I'm just I'm seeing the ball a little better than I was at the end of the year. For me, confidence is a big thing. Stepping in the box with confidence helps me a lot. I get in trouble when I don't have confidence up there so just tracking the ball and seeing the ball well helps me a lot."
On his two home runs in tournament…
"Texas is nice. I had one all year so I mean two these last two games might be a little shocker who knows."
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