The UMass Lowell softball team fell in a pair to Binghamton on Wednesday afternoon, dropping a wild 12-11 finish in the opener, before a 6-1 defeat in the rubber game at River View Field.
 
The River Hawks post a mark of 8-25 overall and 1-7 in the America East, while the Bearcats took the series, and improved to 14-15 and 5-3 in conference play.
 
"As we've shown all year long, we have great resiliency and came back in unbelievable fashion to put up a whole bunch of runs," said Head Coach Sean Cotter. "That's a microcosm of our season as a whole, we don't give up, and one of my goals was to be a tough out in this conference and we certainly made Binghamton battle for all they got to get out of here with the series win."
 
The teams finished a game they started Monday evening, but had to call due to darkness. Play resumed with the River Hawks trailing 9-3 in the top of the fifth inning before the Bearcats tacked on four more runs. The freshman laden River Hawks didn't flinch, putting up five runs in the home half of the inning with the big hit coming off the bat of sophomore Brianna Martin (Methuen, Mass.) who hit a three RBI double.
 
Junior Abby Jamieson (Billerica, Mass.) clubbed a leadoff homerun to make it a 12-10 ballgame in the final frame to spark a rally attempt by the River Hawks. There was hope with runners standing on first and second when Melissa King (Stamford, Conn.) stepped to the plate. King lined a ball off Binghamton pitcher Demi Laney which ricocheted to second baseman Jessica Bump who stepped on second and fired King out at first.
 
Next, senior Ali Ferraro (Kingston, N.Y.) hit a single past the Bearcats third baseman to score Alyssa Hasbrouck (Middletown, N.Y.), but that was as close as the River Hawks could get, dropping their sixth one-run game of the year.
 
Ferraro finished the first game with two hits, a run, RBI, and walk drawn.
 
"Unfortunately we weren't able to take our first series, but we feel good about the direction we're going," said Cotter.
 
Following two scoreless innings in the nightcap, Binghamton got on the board first scoring two runs in the third. Once again, UMass Lowell wasn't deterred as Ariana Darcy (Kingston, N.Y.) hit a single to right field in the bottom of the inning to score Ferraro before Alisha Welch (Langley, British Columbia) got thrown out on a play at the plate.
 
"We had some opportunities early in the game to tie it and get back in it, and it wasn't for a lack of us being demoralized or deflated we felt really good about it and its just the way sports works out," said Cotter.
 
The Bearcats took over from there, hitting back-to-back homeruns in the fifth before adding two insurance runs in the sixth and seventh.
 
"We're certainly there, we're gritty," said Cotter. "We're resilient and that's the mark of a future champion."
 
The River Hawks will conclude a seven-game homestand Thursday at 4 p.m. when they take on Boston University at River View Field