The University of Maine’s baseball team came one out away from advancing to the championship round of the America East Tournament.
But UMaine redshirt senior relief ace Sebastian Holt hit a batter and issued a walk with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to allow top seed Binghamton to rally for a 6-5 victory at the Bearcats Baseball Complex in Vestal, New York, on Friday afternoon.
UMaine, now 2-1 in the double-elimination tournament and 23-31 overall, are facing off against the University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1-1 in America East and 29-23, on Friday evening. The game started at 5 p.m.
Defending champ Binghamton is now 2-0 in the tournament and 30-20 overall.
The UMaine-UMBC winner will have to beat Binghamton twice on Saturday to win the title with the first game slated for a noon first pitch.
UMaine freshman first baseman and America East Rookie of the Year Hunter St. Denis gave the Black Bears a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth with his 11th homer of the season.
But Braylen Gonzalez singled off Holt to open the bottom of the ninth and he was sacrificed to second. Matt Bolton walked and Holt stuck out the next hitter for the second out of the inning.
But he walked Zach Kent on four pitches to load the bases and hit Caden Albright with a 1-0 pitch to allow the tying run to score.
He then walked Zach Anderson on a 3-2 pitch to bring home the winning run.
Holt entered the game tied for the league lead in saves with five but the blown save was his third in a row.
Holt allowed two hits and three runs in 2 ⅓ innings with five walks, a hit batter and two strikeouts.
He is now 1-3.
Bolton’s double and Gonzalez’s RBI single staked Binghamton to a 1-0 lead in the third but Albert De La Rosa’s fifth homer of the season tied it in the fourth.
Tim Hennig singled and eventually scored on a passed ball to restore the one-run lead for the hosts in the fifth but UMaine scored three times in the seventh to take a 4-2 lead.
UMaine strung together five consecutive one-out singles by Juju Stevens, St. Denis, Troy Carpenter, Shane Andrus and Quinn Murphy with Carpenter, Andrus and Murphy picking up the runs-batted in. But Hayden Tarsia, who came on in relief of Brady Bouchard and was greeted by Murphy’s single, was able to pitch out of the bases-loaded jam by inducing a pop-up and fly ball.
Binghamton got one back in the bottom of the seventh on Hennig’s tripled off Owen Wheeler and Sean Sweeney’s RBI groundout off Holt.
The Bearcats tied it in the eighth on Steven Kraus’ double, a sacrifice and Mike Stellrecht’s sacrifice fly.
Hennig had a triple and a single for Binghamton, Krause doubled and singled and Gonzalez singled twice.
Tarsia picked up the win and is now 2-2. He threw 2 ⅔ innings and allowed one run on three hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
St. Denis, who was an All-America East first team and all-rookie choice, had two singles to go with his homer. Murphy had a double and a single and Brody Rasmussen doubled and singled.
Freshman Thomas Stabley pitched five innings of five-hit, two-run baseball with two walks and two strikeouts for the Black Bears.