VESTAL, N.Y. – For the first time since 2015, the Binghamton Bearcats are the America East softball champions, as they slugged their way to an impressive 10-3 championship victory over No. 4 Bryant on Sunday morning.
Binghamton jumped on Bryant with two runs in the opening inning and then added three more in the third. The Bulldogs closed the gap to 6-3, but four more runs from Binghamton clinched the 10-3 victory.
Brianna Roberts was named the Most Outstanding Player after tossing 23.0 innings over three starts, allowing four earned runs with 27 strikeouts and nine walks. She was joined on the All-Championship Team by Akira Kopec, Emma Lawson, and Brianna Santos.
Bryant’s All-Championship selections were Meaghan Houk, Lexi Powell, and Sam Rohwer. Also making the All-Championship Team were UAlbany’s Caitlyn Federick and Hayley Wieczerzak, UMBC’s Haley Luginbill and Kya Matter, Maine’s Gabby Papushka, and UMass Lowell’s Emily Tow.
The Bearcats will learn their NCAA draw during the NCAA Selection Show tonight at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
Binghamton jumped on Bryant in the first inning, as Emma Lawson doubled home Lindsey Walter for a 1-0 lead, and then Rachel Carey followed with an RBI single for a 2-0 advantage.
The Bearcats pushed it to 3-0 on a Lawson solo home run in the third. They loaded the bases later in the frame and plated two more runs on an Akira Kopec sacrifice fly for a 5-0 advantage. Sarah Rende made it 6-0 with a solo shot in the fifth.
Bryant answered back in the sixth. Two of the first three runners reached, and Hannah Cochran ripped a three-run shot to cut the deficit in half, 6-3.
Binghamton’s offense came alive again in the bottom of the frame, as Lawson singled home a pair, and then Maddy Dodig scored two more with a double to make it 10-3. Roberts shut down Bryant in the top of the seventh to secure the win.
Binghamton’s Lindsey Walter, a graduate student with a 3.97 GPA in Chemistry Materials, is this year’s recipient of the Elite 18 Award for having the highest cumulative GPA among today’s participants.
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ABOUT AMERICA EAST
Founded in 1979, the America East Conference is an elite NCAA Division I athletic conference that fosters an environment for student-athletes to become champions. Comprised of academically renowned, like-minded member institutions located in the Northeast region of the United States, America East is committed to broad-based excellence and progressive in its approach to supporting its more than 3,500 student-athletes across 18 sponsored sports. For more information, visit
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