Spending the first month of a season on the road can be taxing, and the Binghamton University softball team, which lost seven of its first 10 games in tournaments throughout the south, was living proof of that.

Then, however, the Bearcats (6-8) hit a stride away from home, going 3-1 at the Adidas/Longwood Classic this weekend.

Binghamton topped North Carolina Central University twice and host Longwood University once. In their sole loss of the weekend, the Bearcats fell to the Longwood Lancers 5-2.

“I think we are getting better,” BU head coach Michelle Burrell said. “There were times when we started to look like ourselves.”

The coach praised the team’s defensive display throughout the tournament, saying it made the difference in the team’s success. In their previous two tournaments, the Bearcats committed several costly errors that enabled opponents to pile on runs.

“I think once we don’t give teams extra opportunities then we do well,” Burrell said. “We played more defensively in this tournament and that definitely helped.”

On the first day of the tournament, the Bearcats thrashed UNC Central, 7-1, before falling to Longwood.

During BU’s domination of the Eagles, junior pitcher Rhoda Marsteller tossed a four-hitter and sophomore pitcher/designated hitter Demi Laney went 3-for-5 with a home run.

After Binghamton went down 2-0 against the Lancers in the fourth inning of Game 2, sophomore first baseman Mikala King and Laney tied the game at two apiece with back-to-back solo home runs. But a walk-off three-run home run from Longwood’s Brittney Latka tipped the game in the Lancers’ favor, 5-2.

Binghamton swept both games on the tournament’s final day. After the Bearcats beat the Eagles again, edging them 3-2 this time, they went on to take down the hosts, 2-0.

Burrell said the team is looking to build on that impressive victory over Longwood.

“Last game we played against Longwood we had some really nice plays on the field, and we were consistent throughout the game,” she said. “We got some good batters that can hit the ball pretty hard at people. We are looking to feed off of that last Longwood game.”

Highlights of the final day included junior pitcher Kate Price tossing four scoreless innings to record a pair of saves in the first game against the Eagles. She now holds a program-record 10 saves.

Alongside Price, senior pitcher Kristen Emerling produced five scoreless innings.

“I thought both Kate and Kristen pitched really well, especially on the second day of the tournament,” Burrell said. “They just did a really nice job, and took on their positions well.”

The Bearcats are set to head back to Virginia this weekend for the Radford Tournament, their fourth and final in-season tournament.

“We go right back out to Virginia, so it is another eight-and-a-half-hour trip,” Burrell said. “We are definitely looking forward to next weekend. I think we are starting to play consistently now. This will be our third weekend in a row playing, so we are just looking to getting into this weekend and then toward conference play.”

The Bearcats are scheduled to play Lehigh University at noon on Saturday before going up against host Radford University at 4 p.m. On Sunday, they are set to take on Lehigh and Radford again, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.