For the nearly 6,000 baseball fans who packed Binghamton’s NYSEG Stadium, Friday night was about lasting memories as the Binghamton Mets edged Richmond, 2-1, to become the 2014 champions of the Eastern League. The Eastern League title was the first for Binghamton in two decades.
There was the memory of Brandon Nimmo’s ground ball through the pitcher’s mound that looked like a certain double play, a ball that hit second base then bounced over Richmond shortstop Kelby Tomlinson’s head and into center field allowing Travis Taijeron to hustle from first to third. Taijeron would score the games first run when Xorge Carrillo, the Championship Series Most Valuable Player, lifted a sacrifice fly ball to center.
There was the memory of Steven Matz walking to the mound in the eighth carrying a no-hitter and a narrow 1-0 lead. Matz caught Angel Villalona looking for his 11th strikeout before Elliot Blair sent a soft and clean base hit to right field to break up the no-hitter.
The capacity crowd rose to its feet to give Matz a long and heartfelt ovation. One batter later, after Tyler LaTorre chopped a spinning tapper between first and second for the second Richmond hit, the crowd, which included New York Met General Manager Sandy Alderson, rose with thunderous applause as Matz exited the game.
There was the memory of Hansel Robles coming on to replace Matz and striking out pinch hitter Tyler Horan. When Robles went 0-2 on Daniel Carbonell the huge crowd rose again and roared urging the B-Met reliever for another strikeout. But, Horan directed a soft flare into right field to tie the score, and Binghamton gunned down LaTorre trying to advance the potential leading run to third.
There was the moment of Jayce Boyd, pinch hitting with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning with Gavin Cecchini on second base and Wilfredo Tovar on first. Cecchini was a pinch runner for Carrillo who singled to left field in front of Tovar who grounded a base hit between second and third to set the table for Boyd.
Boyd ripped a 2-2 pitch in the gap in right-center field, pausing at home plate to watch the ball rise, and not taking off for first base before Richmond centerfielder Carbonell failed to reach the ball and it bounced to the wall.
There was a raucous on the field celebration to the backdrop of exploding fireworks as the B-Met players and coaches simply went wild jumping and jousting and wrestling and spraying each other with champagne as the huge crowd stood and cheered.
Three B-Met players carried the Eastern League Championship flag on a victory lap before an adoring crowd, first down the left field line and then backtracking down the right field line, so all those in attendance at NYSEG could capture the emotion of the moment.
And, there was the memory of B-Met manager Pedro Lopez, the winningest skipper in Binghamton Met history and a guy who preached ‘6 more wins at every turn this summer,’ soaked from the Gatorade shower he was awarded by members of his team, holding the Eastern League trophy high above his head and parading it down the track on both sides of the stands for the approving fans.
It was a breathtaking night of baseball highlighted by a sensational outing by Matz. Heading into the eighth, Matz had allowed only one Richmond batter to reach base, Tomlinson who walked in his first two plate appearances. The B-Met left-hander saved his most dominating appearance for the biggest Binghamton moment of the season with his ultimate boss Sandy Alderson looking on.
It wasn’t until the second batter in the sixth inning that Richmond managed to get a ball out of the infield, a Carbonell fly ball to right field. By the end of the night, Matz would throw 106 pitches, 72 for strikes. With his explosive fastball with late movement, his nasty breaking curveball and a change-up that tails away from right-handed hitters, Matz proved unequivocally to the capacity crowd why the Mets are so excited about his future prospects as a major league pitcher.
Cody Satterwhite capped a terrific campaign out of the B-Met bullpen pitching a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the win. Satterwhite, a one time first round draft pick for Detroit who blew out his arm and pitched in the Independent Leagues last summer, inherited Binghamton’s closer role when Chase Bradford was elevated to Las Vegas in the middle of the year. Satterwhite pitched brilliantly all summer long leading the team with 15 saves in the regular season and logging a sparkling 2.33 ERA. Satterwhite had a perfect 0.00 ERA in the post season winning two games.
Offensively, the B-Mets did what they so often do – shared the load. Eight different B-Mets registered single hit nights with Boyd’s game winner the only extra base hit of the night. It was the same gritty, grinding, resilient B-Met style of play that saw the Binghamton rally from a 2 game to 1 deficit in the opening round of the Eastern League playoffs to take two games on the road in Portland then open the Championship Series winning two more on the road in Richmond.
In many ways the 2014 Eastern League champions took on the same hard work ethic and confident persona of their manager. The champion B-Mets were built to last, a common denominator of a Pedro Lopez coached team.
