Behind the arm of freshman pitcher Sarah Miller, the Binghamton softball team achieved a program first this weekend: winning an America East Championship. The third-seeded Bearcats (24-19, 10-6 America East) rallied from the loser’s bracket to defeat first-seeded Stony Brook in back-to-back games to take home the title.
“I believed this team could win it,” BU head coach Michelle Burrell said. “I think the one thing that we have seen that is probably different from this team than any other year is just the way they work together. It truly has been a team effort all year long and I think that’s why I felt confident that we had a good chance of winning this tournament.”
Binghamton junior outfielder Sydney Harbaugh led off BU’s opening game of the tournament against second-seeded Albany (30-18, 11-6 AE) with a home run and the Bearcats never looked back. Miller, who was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, stifled Albany, holding the Great Danes scoreless through the first three innings of play.
“I was definitely nervous, but my team backed me up the whole time,” Miller said. “After the first inning, I definitely felt more relaxed.”
Meanwhile, BU added two insurance runs in the third off of Albany errors and two in the fourth thanks to a homer from freshman designated hitter Tia Smith, to build up its lead, 5-0. Miller and junior pitcher Cara Martin held off an Albany comeback to give Binghamton a 5-3 win.
“I think that the first win got us good momentum in the tournament,” Burrell said. “I think that put us in a good spot … We were just trying to take it one game at a time.”
After the Bearcats were routed, 16-3, in their winner’s bracket contest against the Seawolves on Friday, Miller re-found her dominance. The freshman blanked Maine (22-22, 10-7 AE) in the loser’s bracket final, allowing just six hits and no runs over four innings. Martin finished off the shutout throwing the final two scoreless innings in BU’s 8-0 win to advance to the championship round.
“The first Stony Brook game we had a couple of things that didn’t go our way,” Burrell said. “I think we really needed to control what we could control and we didn’t necessarily do that. So, I think we really learned from that. That is kind of one of the things we’ve been working on all year long, learning from every single game and getting better every game. I think the girls responded.”
Binghamton faced a momentous hurdle in its efforts to capture the America East title. The Bearcats needed to sweep a doubleheader from Stony Brook (30-17, 14-2 AE) in Saturday’s championship round.
In the opener, the Bearcats jumped all over Stony Brook’s senior pitcher Allison Cukrov, who is a member of the America East First-Team All-Conference squad. BU plated four runs in the second and another in the third to build a 5-0 lead. That was all the run support Miller needed.
“I really made an effort to focus on each pitch, each batter rather than focusing on the whole weekend,” Miller said. “That definitely helped.”
Miller shut down the potent Seawolves lineup. She held Stony Brook scoreless through the first five innings of play. The Seawolves put two on the board against Miller in the sixth, but by that time it was too little too late as BU secured the victory, 5-2, to force a decisive final game.
“Stony Brook definitely has a lot of good hitters, so I just focused on keeping the ball low and [throwing] a lot of changeups,” Miller said. “They seemed to be struggling with the changeups.”
In the ultimate game of the tournament, Binghamton held a 3-2 lead heading into the top of the sixth. Then, BU’s offense exploded. Senior shortstop Caytlin Friis delivered a two-run double. Two batters later, Harbaugh drove a three-run homer to push the Bearcats’ lead to 8-2. Each team plated one more run as Binghamton held on to upset Stony Brook and won the championship. Miller and Martin combined to limit Stony Brook to eight hits and fanned their opponents seven times.
“It’s awesome,” Miller said about winning the AE title. “Just hearing the upperclassmen talk about how close they’ve come to becoming America East champs, it’s just an incredible opportunity for me to be a part of it.”
With the tournament win, the Bearcats are set to head to an NCAA Regional scheduled for May 15-17. Their opponents were not yet selected at the time of production.