Following the close of the 2026 regular season, Binghamton softball played in the America East tournament, coming out as conference champions and advancing to the NCAA tournament. The championship marks the second season in a row and the third season in program history that the Bearcats have won the AE tournament.

“This has been a tough season for a lot of reasons,” said Binghamton head coach Jess Bump. “It’s been hard for us, we’ve faced a lot of adversity, but that’s why I knew coming into today that these girls had a lot of grit to get through it.”

Binghamton (20-25, 15-5 AE) took on Maine (13-36, 6-14 AE) in Wednesday’s game one, where the Black Bears quickly got ahead 3-0 thanks to an RBI double in the second and a two-RBI double in the fourth. The Bearcats responded with a monster fourth inning, kicked off by a two-RBI single from freshman outfielder Megan Wolf, where they scored nine runs to take a commanding six-run lead coming out of the inning. Maine threatened in the fifth with a two-run RBI single, but a two-run blast from sophomore third baseman Rachel Carey and an additional RBI from junior outfielder Maddy Dodig helped to secure a 12-5 Bearcat victory as they moved on to the next round.

“[Carey]’s an elite player,” Bump said. “We’re really happy to have her. I’ve never seen her this hot, but it’s truly incredible what she’s done and all the records she’s broken. Like I said, we’re lucky to have her, and she truly led the wave this week for us.”

Binghamton played two games on Friday, the first against UMass Lowell (27-27, 11-10 AE). The Bearcats took the lead in the fourth thanks to a sacrifice fly from Carey, but a four-run fifth inning from the River Hawks made it a 4-1 ballgame. Another two-run blast from Carey brought the Bearcats within one in the sixth, but they were unable to complete the comeback as they fell at a final score of 4-3.

In an elimination game later that day, the Bearcats came up big against Bryant (21-23, 16-4 AE), scoring 10 runs over the game’s first two innings, again kicked off by a home run from Carey. The Bulldogs’ lone run came thanks to a solo home run in the first, after which junior pitcher Delaney Glover pitched four scoreless innings and shut down Bryant’s offense, leading to a 10-1 Bearcat victory.

“All we wanted to do was get back in the game, we’re a last-inning team, and unfortunately, we came up short, but that just set the tone for the [Bryant] game,” Carey said. “We were hungry, and we really wanted it.”

Saturday’s first game against the River Hawks looked like it would end in disaster for Binghamton, as UMass Lowell quickly got on the board with a three-run homer in the first. The second inning was no better, as three more runs put them up 6-0, and one more in the third made it 7-0 for the River Hawks.

The Bearcats finally got on the board in the fifth, thanks to an error and an RBI single to make the game 7-2, though the River Hawks extended their lead by one due to an RBI bunt. The Bearcats responded with an explosive sixth inning, where they managed to put up eight runs that were bookended by RBIs from Wolf, giving Binghamton a 10-8 lead, while senior pitcher Olivia Kennedy managed to shut down the River Hawk offense in the seventh to secure the victory.

Carey kicked off the final game of the tournament with her fourth home run of the week, but the River Hawks tied the game at 1-1 in the third thanks to a walk with the bases loaded. An RBI single from Dodig in the bottom of the third gave Binghamton back the lead, while a home run from freshman infielder Lauren Payne extended their lead to 3-1 in the following inning. Senior catcher Emma Lawson tacked on one more run for the Bearcats in the fifth thanks to an RBI single, and while UMass Lowell threatened in the sixth after scoring one run of their own, they were unable to complete the comeback as they fell at a final score of 4-2.

“Win a regional game,” Bump said on the team’s goal headed into the NCAA tournament. “That was our goal at the beginning of this year. We made it last year, but that wasn’t enough, so hopefully we can get a good next few days of practice in and go to regionals and show people what we got.”

With Saturday’s pair of wins, Binghamton has advanced to the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row. The team’s first matchup is set to be against Oklahoma on Friday, May 15. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Love’s Field in Norman, Oklahoma.