For Immediate Release: February 17, 2010
Contact: John Hartrick (hartrick@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-6800

Defending champion BU baseball picked third in America East poll
Bearcats return eight starters, are picked first in several other polls

America East release

VESTAL, N.Y.– Binghamton University baseball will be gunning for its fourth straight America East regular season title and second straight NCAA berth when the season opens next weekend. But if the talented Bearcats accomplish those goals, it will apparently be to the surprise of conference coaches, who voted BU third in the America East Coaches' Preseason Poll, released Wednesday.

Maine was picked to win the league with Stony Brook and Binghamton in the second and third spots. The Bearcats received one first-place vote from the five other conference coaches.

Binghamton fared much better in several other polls from national publications. The Bearcats were picked first by Baseball America, College Baseball Today and Collegiate Baseball and were positioned second by Collegebaseballinsider.com.

Eighteenth-year head coach Tim Sinicki's Bearcats are scheduled to open their 2010 season with a three-game series at Longwood (Va.) on February 27-28.

Sinicki returns eight of nine hitters from last year's starting lineup and two weekend starting pitchers, giving BU plenty of talent to contend again. Leading the cast of returnees is junior outfielder Corey Taylor, a first-team all-conference and second-team all-region selection. Taylor established school records for home runs (16) and RBI (56) and led the conference in total bases. Senior second baseman Jim Calderone and sophomore first baseman Dave Ciocchi anchor the infield. Calderone hit .358, scored 53 runs and earned conference championship MVP honors. Ciocchi hit a team-best .381 with 41 RBI and garnered America East Rookie of the Year and Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America honors.

Last spring, BU went 30-22 to win the program's first-ever conference title. In its first NCAA appearance, BU knocked out nationally-ranked George Mason and averaged nine runs in three NCAA games. The Bearcats became just the third America East team in 14 years to win an NCAA game. Under Sinicki, the America East Coach of the Year in three of the last five seasons, BU has increased its win total for an NCAA-record six consecutive seasons.