The Binghamton softball team’s offense, which ranks first in the America East (AE) with a .334 batting average, has carried the team to success early this season. However, this weekend against Maine, the usually potent lineup fell quiet as BU (21-12, 7-2 AE) dropped two of three to the Black Bears (17-15, 6-2 AE), losing their first conference games since May of last season.
After taking the opener, 7-3, the Bearcats were held to just five hits in the final two games of the series thanks to two dominant performances by Maine sophomore pitcher Erin Bogdanovich. The sophomore tossed two straight complete games, including one shutout.
“[Bogdanovich] did a really good job of keeping our girls off-balance,” BU head coach Michelle Burrell said. “She was using a changeup that was effective against us.”
In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, a 3-0 Black Bears victory, sophomore infielder Kristen Niland led Maine’s offense by going 2-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored. Binghamton, on the other hand, had just three hits, two of which came from sophomore outfielder Jessica Rutherford, who leads the team with a .418 batting average. Rutherford’s contributions, however, were not enough to prevent Bogdanovich’s shutout, her second of the season.
“We felt like our offense let us down this weekend,” Burrell said. “We had too many strikeouts in big situations. We had runners on base and a lot of the strikeouts were looking, so we need to do a better job of knowing what we’re working with behind the plate.”
Burrell attributed the unusual weakness of Binghamton’s offense to the Bearcats’ inability to adapt to strike zones of varying sizes.
“One of the umpires that we saw had a little bit bigger strike zone and we needed to make some adjustments earlier on,” she said. “Our zones were bigger with all three umpires that we saw, so we really needed to work to make those adjustments.”
Burrell believes the Bearcats made some of those adjustments in Sunday’s rubber game, but their efforts weren’t enough for them to take the series, as they fell, 2-1.
It was Bogdanovich once again who thwarted the Binghamton offense’s attempts to return to its normal form. She threw her second complete game in as many days, giving up just one run, striking out four and giving up just one walk. The Bearcats took an early lead in the top of the second on a groundout to second by junior shortstop Crysti Eichner, but the Black Bears answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame. Bogdanovich and the Maine defense proved impenetrable for the remainder of the contest, holding on to secure their second AE series victory of the year.
Binghamton’s 7-3 victory over the Black Bears on Saturday served as the highlight of the Bearcats’ trip to Maine. Sophomore pitcher Sarah Miller, who leads BU with a 2.83 ERA, tossed a complete game, improving her record to 12-5 on the season.
“Sarah [Miller] did a really good job,” Burrell said. “She got us out of a couple of key situations in that game.”
Rutherford, Eichner, senior outfielder Sydney Harbaugh and junior outfielder Gabby Bracchi each had two hits in the win, as the Bearcats combined for 11 hits. The tally was significant as the hits came against Maine freshman pitcher Molly Flowers, who entered the contest with a 2.14 ERA, the lowest in the AE.
Binghamton is set to return to action at home this Thursday in a doubleheader against Cornell. First pitches are set for 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. from the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.