Tim Sinicki, Binghamton Bearcats

Having led his team to four NCAA Regional berths in the last nine years, Tim Sinicki enters his 26th season at the helm of the Binghamton Bearcats baseball program in 2018. He is the longest-tenured coach at the university and has consistently positioned the Bearcats among the elite teams in the America East and the Northeast.

Sinicki’s Bearcats have won four of the last five America East champions, having captured the conference titles in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017. He has been named the America East Coach of the Year six times (2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2016 and 2017) and his teams have advanced to the postseason 10 times in the last 12 years. Binghamton has played in the conference title game six times in the last 11 years.

The Binghamton Bearcats have won 10 combined America East regular season and tournament titles in the last 11 years, which is the most of any team in the league. In addition to winning the last two America East regular season titles, the Bearcats are a combined 34-9 versus AE opponents during that time. Binghamton was 30-13 last year and had an RPI as high as No. 41 before falling short in the AE tournament after losing three starting infielders to injuries in April. In the last two years the Bearcats also have the second-best home winning percentage in the nation (30-4, second only to Louisville), and have had four MLB draft pick/signees.

In 2016, BU completed the America East “double” by winning the regular season and tournament titles. Sinicki’s Bearcats then battled No. 1 Texas A&M; and Big Ten champion Minnesota in two narrow NCAA Regional defeats.

The Binghamton Bearcats went a dominating 19-5 against America East foes and were the last unbeaten team at home in the entire country, losing in their regular-season finale after starting the spring 14-0 on home soil. Binghamton ended the regular season by going 28-10.

A program-record nine players earned all-conference honors in 2016, led by senior Pitcher of the Year Mike Bunal. Sinicki was chosen as Coach of the Year for the fifth time, giving BU two of the four major awards. Five players were named to the first team and another four made the second team.

None of the tournament appearances or advancement was more impressive than the run of Sinicki’s 2014 squad. That team shook off an assortment of key injuries and staged an improbable run through the consolation bracket of the America East Championship,