Freshman Tori Alcorn's (Lowell, Mass.) solo blast to spark a four-run fifth inning helped the UMass Lowell softball team rally to a 6-4 victory over Binghamton, and earn their first America East Conference win at River View Field.
 
The win ends a five game slide for the River Hawks, who improve to 8-23 overall, and 1-5 in the America East, while the Bearcats drop to 12-15 overall and 3-3 in conference play.
 
"Its certainly a special day for us, Binghamton is a good team who finished second in the conference a year ago," said Head Coach Sean Cotter. "Obviously some late game heroics and I thought Marielle pitched really well from about the third inning on and got tough, Jamieson had a great day, and Alcorn got us going in the ninth spot with the solo shot, so we had a lot of contributions and it was good to get that first win."
 
The River Hawks bats came alive in the fifth inning with the team trailing 4-1.

Alcorn hit a leadoff solo shot to center before back-to-back singles from Ariana Darcy (Kingston, N.Y.) and Abby Jamieson (Billerica, Mass.). Next, Emily O'Brien (Salem, N.H.) reached on an error by Binghamton second baseman Jessica Bump that loaded the bases. The last two runs of the frame came courtesy of a passed ball and single to left field by Ali Ferraro (Kingston, N.Y.).
 
Sophomore Marielle Handley (Durham, Conn.) settled in after giving up three runs in the first two innings and picked up her fourth win of the season. Handley tossed a complete game, allowing nine hits and four runs but struck out a season-high seven batters.
 
"She missed a couple locations and we got on her about it, and she really got tough," said Cotter. "That was the first time in a while I saw her get real tough while she was pitching and she had a bulldog mentality from the third inning on and I thought that was the difference in the game."
 
Jamieson finished the game a perfect 4-for-4, highlighted by a triple in her first at-bat, and finished the opener with two RBI as she added an insurance run for the River Hawks in the sixth inning when she singled to score Alcorn.
 
The back-end of the doubleheader today was suspended due to darkness and will be continued tomorrow at 2 p.m. before the teams close out the series with game three immediately after.
 
"Our first goal was to win a conference game, now it's to win a conference series, and we still have that capability going into the next time we play," said Cotter.