VESTAL, N.Y. – Binghamton baseball released its 53-game schedule for the 2019 season and the Bearcats will open with a three-game set against Big Ten power Michigan on Feb. 15-17 in Florida.
In all, BU will play teams from nine different conferences in addition to the traditional 18-game America East slate, which begins on March 23.
The matchup against the Wolverines will be played at the New York Mets Spring Training facility in Port St. Lucie. Michigan won 33 games last spring (15-8 in Big Ten, 3rd place) and received consideration for an NCAA at-large berth. They are one of four first-time opponents the Bearcats will face in 2019. The others are Conference USA members Old Dominion (Feb. 22-24) and Marshall (March 1-3) and Southern Conference member Mercer (March 15-17). Mercer won 38 games and was the SoCon runnerup in 2018. After that three-game set in Macon, Ga., the Bearcats will stay in the Peach State to face Atlantic Sun member Kennesaw State twice on March 19-20.
“I really like the blend of new teams and familiar faces on our 2019 schedule,” 27th-year head coach Tim Sinicki said. “Opening with a team like Michigan – who many think has a chance to get to Omaha in June, followed by other first-time opponents Old Dominion and Marshall is certainly going to be a challenge for our team. Then after a weekend with our friends at VMI (March 8-10), we head to Georgia for spring break to face two outstanding programs in Mercer and Kennesaw State.
“My hope is that the difficult early-season schedule along with our traditional midweek regional opponents will prepare us for the America East Conference – which seems to get better and better each and every year.”
The Bearcats will make it two opponents from the Big Ten when they continue a recent trend of scheduling Penn State. The teams will meet March 26 in State College.
The remainder of the schedule features familiar foes from the MAAC (Marist, Siena, Niagara), Patriot League (Bucknell), Ivy (Cornell), Atlantic-10 (St. Bonaventure) and Northeast Conference (Central Conn.). Binghamton will face its closest proximity opponent (Cornell) three times – twice at home and once in Ithaca.
The Bearcats are slated to play 28 road games, 22 at home and three neutral site games.
Binghamton also has been selected to host the 2019 America East tournament on May 22-26 at the Bearcats Baseball Complex. It will be the first time BU hosts the conference tournament since 2010. The program has captured three titles in the six years since then (2013, 2014, 2016). The top six teams (of seven) will gather in Vestal for the double-elimination tournament with the champion advancing to the NCAA Regionals.
“Without question I’m confident that our administration will put on a first-class tournament at the end of May,” Sinicki said. “Our goal is that we are playing our best baseball at that time of the season and are able to put ourselves in a position to challenge for a championship.”
Binghamton returns 20 letterwinners from its 2018 team.
