After a fourth-place finish in the America East (AE) tournament a season ago, the Binghamton softball team will begin its 2023 campaign this upcoming weekend. While the team is without four seniors from last year, the Bearcats return seven starting position players, including three pitchers, and add seven newcomers, including six freshmen, to the squad.

“We’re really excited to get started this week,” said Binghamton head coach Jessica Bump. “It’s been a long time coming for this group. They’ve put in a lot of effort since we got back to school in August, and our staff is really excited to kind of see what they’re putting together. At this point, all we really need to do is to start playing against someone other than ourselves.”

In her first season as head coach, Bump led BU to a 22-23 overall record while going 7-8 in conference play. The Bearcats hosted the America East tournament where they finished in fourth place after two victories against Hartford. Now entering her second season as head coach, Bump will look to lead this team to the next level in 2023.

“I think regardless of what happens on the field, just continuing to move forward,” Bump said. “Obviously I learned a lot last year. I think I learned a lot about myself, but also how to lead a group of 18-to-23 year olds. For us it’s really just coming together as a group, and just knowing that regardless of what happens the day before, this group has what it takes to change the motion of everything.”

The AE preseason poll has pitted Binghamton to finish fourth in the conference this season. The Bearcats earned 16 points with one first place vote, placing them right before Albany with 17 points, UMass Lowell with 20 points and first ranked UMBC who amassed 23 points and four first place votes. Maine and Bryant rounded out the preseason poll rankings with seven points earned apiece.

“We haven’t talked about the poll at all,” Bump said. “The only thing we really talk about is it’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish. So obviously we feel good that someone voted us first, knowing that we have a good group coming at [the AE] this season, but I don’t think that’s something we focus on. We just got to continue to get better every day. It’s a long season, 51 games scheduled, so we just got to make sure we’re playing our best ball that second week in May when we head down to UMBC for the America East tournament.”

A key piece returning to the team this year is graduate student infielder Alli Richmond. Last season, the Bearcat started in all 45 games and was a first team Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) all-star. In addition, she was selected first team all-conference, finishing the season with a .303 batting average, six home runs and 27 RBIs.

“It’s definitely helped my confidence,” Richmond said. “I kind of want to roll that momentum into this year, but at the end of the day I’m gonna keep trusting my process, keep trusting my training. I’m lucky enough to be on a team with a lot of talented athletes where it’s probably going to be someone different that steps up every game and every weekend.”

In addition to Richmond, two of last year’s AE all-rookie team selections, sophomore outfielders Sarah Rende and Alayna Harbaugh, return to the team. Rende appeared in 43 games last year and was named second team all-conference. Harbaugh appeared in all 45 games and led the AE with 19 stolen bases. Furthermore, she batted .308, leading BU in that statistic and posted 11 multiple hit games.

Senior catcher Quinn DeCicco also returns to BU after playing 33 games last season, ranking third on the team in batting average with .299 and hit three home runs and 14 RBIs.

“One goal we have as a team this year is to have each other’s backs,” DeCicco said. “If one person makes a mistake, our goal is to have the next person behind them pick each other up. So say you strike out — the next person in line is gonna have your back and make sure that we don’t let the ball keep rolling and have two mistakes in a row.”

Binghamton will begin its season this Friday, Feb. 10 at the Florida Gulf Coast Tournament. First pitch is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. at the FGCU Softball Complex in Fort Myers, Florida.