The Binghamton softball team began its America East slate in peak form Saturday afternoon by sweeping a home-opening doubleheader against defending champions Albany. BU’s offense was able to tag the Great Danes early and often during the contests, en route to taking both games by mercy rule.

“Obviously, a good home opener,” said Binghamton head coach Jess Bump. “First day at home we had a great crowd, even though it was a little chilly today, but today is what we’ve been working for for a long time. So I’m happy the girls came out and played pretty good softball.”

Binghamton (16-9, 2-0 AE) opened the doubleheader with freshman infielder Rachel Carey finding the gap to plate two Bearcats with a single, but Albany (7-15, 0-2 AE) answered in the bottom of the first with a game-tying two-run homer. After the Great Danes took the lead with an RBI single in the top of the third, Carey responded with the hosts’ first home run of the day to dead center before sophomore infielder Elisa Allen plated the tie-breaking run on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-3.

After another game-tying RBI single by the visitors, the Bearcats would pull away in the bottom of the fourth. Graduate student outfielder Brianna Santos retook the lead with a triple and advanced on error to make it 6-4, with the board soon reading 9-4 after additional RBI hits. The dagger then came from sophomore utility Maddy Dodig, who blasted out a three-run homer of the game to clear the bases and make it 12-4. After a clean fifth from junior pitcher Brianna Roberts, BU secured a mercy rule in game one.

“We’ve been doing a good job offensively all year, but we just haven’t put a lot of stuff together,” Bump said. “So we’ve been hitting the ball hard the last few weeks, but we just kind of told them, ‘We got to stick with the process … eventually it’ll come.’ So I was really happy with the results today.”

Junior pitcher Olivia Kennedy got the ball in game two, and quickly got to work painting the corners to open play with a three-strikeout first frame. The Bearcat bats then picked up where they left off as junior catcher Emma Lawson smacked a fastball out of the park to make it 1-0. Following two more punch outs from Kennedy to open the second, Santos sent Allen home on a single bobbled by the Albany infield to make it 2-0 before a triple and a line drive single drove in three more runs to make it 5-0.

“When you’re playing better teams, you just have to eliminate extra opportunities,” Bump said. “I thought they did a great job just commanding the zone and getting ahead early. So I think that’s why you saw those results from the mound today.”

After a triple down the foul line at the top of the third plated Albany’s first run, senior outfielder Sarah Rende worked the count and sent one to left field for the game’s second Bearcat bomb to make it 6-1. Some small ball then allowed junior infielder Rebecca Minnichbach to plate two more Bearcats with a bunt, before Lawson blasted her second home run of the day, this time a three run bomb, to put BU up 10-1 at the frame’s end.

Dodig added an insurance three run homer herself in the fourth, before sophomore pitcher/utility Sami Levine pinch-hit BU’s 14th run of the game with a blast to center field. Kennedy closed out the fifth with a whiff to earn her eighth strikeout and secure a 14-2 mercy rule win to net the sweep for Binghamton.

“We knew coming into it, it was going to be a tough game,” Lawson said. “We saw that in the first game, going back and forth, and we just are taking it one game at a time, and we know we’re not done yet. This is only the beginning, and we’re working for a conference championship.”

Binghamton will look to stay hot next weekend as they pay a visit to UMBC for a three-game set, opening play on Saturday, March 29. The first pitch of game one is set for noon at The Diamond at UMBC in Baltimore, Maryland.