Binghamton 9, Portland 3

After scoring just 11 runs in their previous five games, Binghamton’s offense came alive in a 9-3 wire-to-wire victory over the Portland Sea Dogs at NYSEG Stadium Wednesday night. Zach Lutz managed a three-hit day including a three-run homer and Carlos Guzman ended an 0-13 slump with a three-hit night of his own to pace the B-Mets 13-hit attack. Eddie Kunz benefited from the banner offensive showing, picking up his second win of the year with five-plus innings of work.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis helped Binghamton (11-9) out to an early lead in the first when he singled leading off against starter Casey Kelly. With Jose Coronado at the plate, Nieuwenhuis stole second to move into scoring position, his fourth stolen base of the young season. Coronado moved him up to third with a groundout to the right side of the infield. Lucas Duda gave the B-Mets the lead with an RBI single to center, raising his Eastern League-leading total to 19. Luke Montz chased home another run in the inning on a bases-loaded sac fly to left that took leftfielder Ryan Kalish to the warning track, making it 2-0.

Lutz got the third inning rolling with a one-out double off the right field wall. The two-bagger marked the end of the night for Kelly, who tossed 2 1/3 innings. Right-hander Eammon Portice was summoned and promptly allowed Lutz to reach third on a wild pitch. After striking out D.J. Wabick, Portice surrendered a two-out, RBI single to Montz to push the lead to three.

Binghamton’s scoring onslaught continued in the fifth inning with a three-run outburst. Duda and Lutz led off the inning with singles. After Wabick popped out to second, Montz laced a double into the left field corner to score Duda from second. Then, Guzman cleared the bases with a double down the first base line to double lead.

Kunz faced two over the minimum through the first five innings, but ran into trouble in the sixth. Kunz walked Jason Place, hit Nate Spears and gave up a single to Ray Chang to load the bases. With the bases juiced, Kunz exited in favor of Jose De La Torre, who did not have his best stuff. De La Torre misfired with Kalish at the plate, uncorking a wild pitch to score Place. After walking Kalish, he issued another free pass to Luis Exposito with the bases loaded to chase home Spears. The next hitter Che-Hsuan Lin lined a single to left-center to plate Chang. The Sea Dogs had cut the Binghamton lead in half and still had the bases loaded with no one out.

However, Roy Merritt relieved De La Torre and put out the fire retiring the next three men in order to strand the bases loaded and keep the score at 6-3.

In the home half of the frame, the B-Mets got those three runs back on one swing of the bat. T.J. Large came on in the sixth in relief of Portice. Nieuwenhuis singled to open the inning. After Coronado sacrificed him to second, Large issued a walk to Duda, putting two on for Lutz. Binghamton’s third baseman launched a Large slider over the left-centerfield wall for his league-leading sixth homer to put the lead back at six.

The bullpen would take it the rest of the way for the win. Merritt retired all six men he faced, Clint Everts tossed the eighth in scoreless fashion and Edgar Ramirez worked around a Jose Iglesias leadoff double to hurl a scoreless ninth, securing the 9-3 victory.

Kunz allowed three runs in five-plus innings to pick up his second win. The righty allowed four hits, walked three and struck out one.