The University of Maine women’s softball team hosted the University of Binghamton on April 11 and 12 for a three-game America East series at the Pierre and Catherine Labat Softball Complex. They played a double-header on Friday and the game on Saturday got cancelled due to weather conditions. The Black Bears dropped both games on Friday night 7-2 and 8-0. Before the games, Maine stood at 0-9 in conference and 7-27 overall.
Third-year pitcher Alysen Reith started the game for the Black Bears and threw all seven innings, making it her ninth complete game of the season and had nine strikeouts. She has thrown an America East-leading 100.1 innings and is tied for second in the conference with eight complete games and 85 strikeouts.
In the first match, the Bearcats scored the first two runs of the game after second-year infielder Elisa Allen got a home run to get graduate utility Lindsey Walter to run home from third base. Reith got her first K of the night after the fourth hitter. First-year infielder Francesca Guerrero was first up to bat for Maine against third-year pitcher Brianna Roberts and was grounded out. Maine struck out the first inning, which resulted in no runs or bases.
The Bearcats added one more in the second for a 3-0 lead through two at the end of the second inning. First-year infield Rachel Carey got a home run for the Bearcats at the start of the first inning. Allen then went up to bat and got to second base before a missed pass from Maine sent her and second-year utility Maddy Dodig home to make it 6-0 at the end of the third inning.
With a scoreless fourth and fifth inning, the Black Bears finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning with second-year outfield Kiera Inman’s home run, her third of the season. First-year infield Eviana Robles then singled home fourth-year outfield Kyra Haba-Dailey to the end of the inning. The Bearcats added one run in the top of the seventh to get a 7-2 final.
Before the games, Maine was at 39-35-0 all-time against Binghamton, having 0-5 of the last five games and 1-9 inch the last 10 meetings.
In Game 36, the first two innings were off to a slow start with scoreless frames. First-year Madison Simmerman started and threw 3.2 innings, while third-year pitcher Ava Zettlemoyer threw 3.2 innings in relief. Third-year pitcher Olivia Kennedy started for the Bearcats pitching. Binghamton got on the board first in the top of the third to take the lead from a home run by fourth-year outfielder Sarah Renee. The Bearcats continued this momentum and went on a four run streak in the fourth to push the lead to 5-0.
After a scoreless fifth inning, Binghamton went on to add one run in the sixth. Maine had a threatening attack in the bottom of the sixth but had two runners stranded. Two more runs in the seventh for the Bearcats resulted in an 8-0 final.
Up next, Maine faces Colby College on Thursday, April 17 at home at 5 p.m.