After splitting its home doubleheader against Cornell on Wednesday, the Binghamton softball team swept UMBC over the weekend to clinch the America East (AE) regular season title with a current 14-2 record in conference play. BU outscored its guests 18-8 on the series, highlighted by a pair of dominant starts by junior pitcher Brianna Roberts.
“I was really happy with how we bounced back today,” said head coach Jess Bump on the Binghamton Softball X account. “Even though we won both games yesterday, I thought we were a little sloppy in game two. I thought [Roberts] came out and threw a great game for us, had more strikeouts than yesterday, missed a lot of barrels. I just felt like our defense was way more focused today.”
Roberts got to work quickly in game one, striking out a pair of UMBC (17-26, 11-7 AE) batters in the first and returning a scoreless second, allowing sophomore infielder Elisa Allen to put BU (29-12, 14-2 AE) up 1-0 in the second with a solo shot. After Roberts again held the Retrievers scoreless in the third with a pair of punchouts to close the frame, junior catcher Emma Lawson plated BU’s second run of the contest with a single.
Allen cleared herself and the two Bearcats on base with her second homer of the contest, going up 5-0 to end the third. It was smooth sailing for BU the rest of the way, with Roberts only allowing a single Retriever to reach home in the sixth as she finished the complete game win with 10 Ks.
“[Roberts] has that mentality, she’s just going after them all the time, and I think she’s got something to prove,” Bump said. “She’s been injured a little bit the last two seasons and this is her first season fully healthy. She’s only lost two games this year and I think she’s just really bearing down for us, and she’s getting better as games go on.”
Binghamton’s bats stayed hot in the nightcap on Saturday, with freshman infielder Rachel Carey and junior outfielder Bella Farina plating three runs in the first off a double and a single to go up 3-0. Carey hit another single to bring in BU’s fourth run in the third before Lawson made it 5-0 BU after capitalizing on an error.
The Bearcats kept up the momentum in the fourth, with Allen mashing her third homer of the day to plate two runs before Lawson leveraged another error to reach home and make it 8-0. This marked Allen’s Binghamton record-breaking 18th blast of the year. While UMBC mounted a six-run rally in the fifth and sixth frames with a small-ball approach, freshman pitcher Savanna McHale slammed the door on the comeback attempt in the seventh to net the 8-6 win.
“[Graduate student utility Lindsey Walter has] been here for five [years], [senior outfielder Sarah Rende] for four, [graduate student outfielder Brianna Santos] for three,” Bump said. “And they’ve been extremely, extremely great leaders, been starters for us throughout their whole time and they’ve just done a great job leading our team, and they’re great people off the field too. I think for me, as a coach, that’s what matters most.”
In the series finale on Sunday, Roberts took the mound again and turned in a dominant outing. The southpaw registered three punchouts across the first two frames to keep the Retrievers at 0, and Rende rewarded her in the bottom of the second with run support in the form of a two-run homer.
While Roberts surrendered a solo shot in the third, UMBC didn’t reach home again. Sophomore utility Maddy Dodig and Rende plated three more insurance runs in the fifth to make it 5-1, and a 1-2-3 seventh that featured her 12th strikeout of the game and 22nd of the weekend, giving Roberts her 16th victory of the campaign.
“I think it shows all the preparation and hard work we’ve done since August,” Bump said. “We tied the regular season last year. Tournament setting is different, a little bit more pressure, but I think we’re a different team this year — they have a lot more confidence. Hopefully, next weekend at Albany, we can continue to gain some momentum right into the tournament.”
With Sunday’s victory, BU clinched the AE regular season title and will hold a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Their next series is a doubleheader against Colgate University, and first pitch is scheduled for Tuesday, April 29, at 2 p.m. at the Easton Street Softball Complex in Hamilton, New York.