For Immediate Release: April 13, 2007
Contact: John Hartrick (hartrick@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-6800

Groh tosses eight scoreless innings to lead BU baseball past Vermont 4-0
Hitchcock delivers three-run double; Bearcats move to 5-0 in league play

Box Score

VESTAL, N.Y. - Junior Zach Groh (Reading, Pa.) tossed eight scoreless innings and senior first baseman Brendon Hitchcock (Laceyville, Pa.) delivered a three-run double to lift Binghamton (11-9, 5-0 America East) to a 4-0 win over visiting Vermont (9-15, 0-1 AE) Friday afternoon from Varsity Field. With the win, BU remains unbeaten in conference play.

Groh (2-1), the reigning America East Pitcher of the Year, scattered five hits - all singles - and struck out seven with two walks. Junior Khalid Afify (Binghamton, N.Y.) pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to complete the victory.

Hitchcock made the Catamounts pay in the bottom of the third inning. Senior catcher Pat Haughie (St. James, N.Y.) walked to open the inning. Freshman center fielder Henry Dunn (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) then dropped down a sacrifice bunt and reached first on a fielding error. After a strikeout, Vermont elected to intentionally walk No. 3 hitter Matt Simek to get the lefty-vs.-lefty matchup with Hitchcock. The two-time first team all-conference player spoiled the stragegy, however, by lacing a bases-clearing, two-strike pitch from sophomore lefthander Justin Albert to the gap in left center.

Binghamton added a run in the sixth inning when senior shortstop Justin Smucker (Bird-in-Hand, Pa.) hit a two-out double down the left field line that scored Haughie, who had walked and advanced to second on a Dunn single.

Groh flirted with trouble in the seventh inning, when the Catamounts put together two hits and a walk to load the bases with two outs. But Groh struck out pinch hitter Jeff Heppner to end the inning.

The teams will continue their scheduled four-game series with a doubleheader (two seven-inning games) Saturday beginning at noon. Sunday's nine-inning finale is in jeopardy with a reported snow storm headed for the Northeast.

NOTES
Hitchcock leads the America East with a .423 average. He also has a team-best 17 RBI.