Box Score (PDF): Game 1 | Game 2

LOWELL, Mass. – Redshirt-junior Casey Harding (Cheshire, Conn.) roped a pair of home runs to help lift the UMass Lowell softball team (27-18, 15-3 AE) to a 7-4 victory in game two of a doubleheader against UAlbany (26-15, 13-4 AE) on Saturday, sealing the program's first ever America East Regular-Season Championship.
 
Despite pulling within one late in game one, the River Hawks fell, 5-4, to start the day against the Great Danes. However, the home team combined for five runs in the fifth and sixth innings of game two en route to the team's second win of the final and deciding conference series of the regular season.  
 
"I knew it wasn't going to be easy," said Head Coach Danielle Henderson. "Albany is a very good team and they battled, but we didn't let the emotions of the game get to us. We stayed within ourselves, we went hard and we laid it all out there.
 
Junior Courtney Cashman (Danvers, Mass.) paced the River Hawks with four hits on the day, while Harding boasted four RBI. Senior Sydney Barker (Upland, Calif.) and sophomore Maria Moccio (Feeding Hills, Mass.) added two RBI and one home run apiece, as well.
 
The Great Danes scratched across the first run of the day in the top of the first of game one thanks to a RBI double by Sarah Petzold. However, the River Hawks answered in their first at-bat thanks to a bloop single by sophomore Sara Siteman (Hudson, N.H.) over the head of the visiting shortstop that scored classmate Olivia Labbe (Rochester, Mass.).
 
The 1-1 deadlock held for the next two innings until UAlbany plated three runs in the fourth to pull away. The visitors then added one more in the fifth on a RBI double by Kelly Spear, making the score 5-1.
 
The River Hawks chipped away at the difference in the home half of the fifth when Moccio put her squad within two at 5-3 on a two-run homer to right center. UMass Lowell then made it just a one-run game in the sixth with a solo shot by junior Melany Sheldon (Garbagnate, Milan, Italy) before putting runners on the corners in the seventh, but UAlbany would hold on for the 5-4 outcome.
 
In game two, Harding broke open the scoring with a home run to straight-away center in the second. Senior pitcher Kaysee Talcik (Shelton, Conn.) allowed the Great Danes just one hit their first three trips to the dish, giving her team the opportunity to stretch the lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the third with a bases-loaded infield single by senior Brianna West (Fairfield, Conn).
 
A double play by Moccio and a great snag in right center by Labbe kept the two-run buffer intact in the fourth, although Alexis Phillips erased the difference and gave UAlbany a 3-2 advantage with a three-run triple in the fifth.
 
The visitors cut the difference to just one in the top of the sixth, but Barker plated a pair of insurance runs when she went yard in the bottom of the inning. West would then show her range in left for the final out of the contest, securing the victory for UMass Lowell.
 
Finished with the regular season, the River Hawks will now take the top seed into the 2019 America East Championship on May 8-11. The team is first slated to play the winner of the No. 4 UMBC vs. No. 5 Hartford game on Thursday, May 9 at 11 a.m. in Hartford, Co