Binghamton softball opened its season this weekend at the South Carolina Tournament, where it played five games against Syracuse, Virginia Tech and South Carolina. The Bearcats won their opener on Friday morning before dropping each of their four remaining games. Both Virginia Tech and South Carolina are ranked nationally in the top 25.

“This weekend was a good starting point for this team,” wrote Binghamton head coach Jess Bump. “We wanted to be challenged right off the bat with nationally ranked teams to see how we can compete. Looking back on some of the scores, it doesn’t reflect how close some of the games were. If we had a few more timely hits, and made 1 or 2 plays, some of the outcomes would’ve been different. Our at bats were solid, our defense was good considering we haven’t been outside yet, and I thought our pitchers did a good job competing against some of the best hitting teams in the country.”

Friday saw Binghamton (1-4) play a pair of games against Syracuse (3-2) and Virginia Tech (5-0), splitting the day between their two opponents. The Bearcats took the early 1-0 lead in game one against the Orange thanks to an RBI double in the second from junior utility Maddy Dodig.

The team tacked on three more runs in the following inning before allowing a single run in the sixth. Binghamton added one more insurance run thanks to a solo home run from redshirt junior infielder Akira Kopec in the final inning, securing a 5-1 win.

Game two did not end as well for Binghamton. After the game was locked in a 1-1 tie through the first three innings, Virginia Tech drove in three runs in the fourth and fifth innings, resulting in a 4-1 victory over the Bearcats.

“We’d like to have some innings back, obviously,” Bump wrote. “The one major thing is a mental focus when we get later into the games. We are physically prepared and they look tremendous, but now it’s the mental toughness piece of things we need to continue to improve on. We left a lot of runners in scoring position this weekend — but with some more live reps that’s going to clean itself up.”

Saturday saw Binghamton once again playing Syracuse and Virginia Tech, this time dropping both games. The team’s first game against Syracuse once again saw them in a 1-1 deadlock early, but the Orange pulled ahead in the second with a 2-1 lead. Senior catcher Emma Lawson answered with a two-run RBI double to put Binghamton ahead 3-2 in the third. They were unable to hold on to the lead, as Syracuse tied the game in the sixth inning and scored the winning run in the seventh, defeating the Bearcats 4-3.

Binghamton looked to bounce back against the Hokies, taking a 3-0 lead in the third. However, Virginia Tech rallied hard, scoring 11 runs over the next three innings and cruising to an 11-3 victory.

“I think after this weekend the girls now see that if we play a complete game on both sides of the ball we can compete with anyone,” Bump wrote. “And from a staff perspective, we are still coming out of the weekend knowing we still had success even though we lost 4 games. A few tough innings hurt us, but for weekend one and moving forward, we are going to be a tough team to beat when we get back to the northeast.”

The Bearcats played their final game of the tournament on Sunday afternoon against South Carolina (3-2), once again facing defeat. After falling 1-0 in the second due to an error, Binghamton answered in the fourth with an RBI single from freshman infielder Lauren Payne to tie the game 1-1. The Gamecocks responded with a monster fifth inning, scoring seven runs — four of which were unearned — and making it 8-1.

Any hopes the Bearcats had for a comeback were killed when South Carolina hit a solo walk-off home run shot in the bottom of the sixth, making the final score 9-1 as the Gamecocks forced a mercy rule.

“We only have 2 days to prepare this weekend before we head to Auburn so we will be scouting our opponents and just honing in on a few small things that we want to take down to Alabama,” Bump wrote.

Binghamton will next play this upcoming weekend in the Auburn Tournament, where they will first take on the University of Illinois. First pitch is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 13 at the Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex in Clearwater, Florida.