Junior left-hander Erin Bogdanovich tossed a two-hitter to pick up her fifth straight win and senior catcher Janelle Bouchard broke a 1-1 tie with a sixth-inning homer as the University of Maine softball team beat Albany 3-1 to earn a split of Saturday’s America East doubleheader at Albany, New York.
Devin Durando threw a four-hitter in the opener and Donna Conrad homered in the fourth inning to snap a 1-1 tie as Albany triumphed 2-1.
On Sunday, Albany rallied from a one-run deficit with a three-run fifth inning and held the Black Bears to three hits to earn a 5-3 victory.
Maine is now 19-17 overall, 7-4 in conference play while Albany is 29-12 and 9-1.
“I’m a little frustrated because we had some early opportunities [to extend the 1-0] lead in the first game. But we bounced back in the second game and that’s an important component,” Maine head coach Mike Coutts said Saturday. “We really played well today.
“Erin was awesome. She was dominant and we played good defense behind her,” Coutts added. “And Molly Flowers was great in the first game.”
Sophomore Flowers fired a three-hitter in the opener with 10 strikeouts.
In the nightcap, Bogdanovich threw just 75 pitchers, 50 for strikes, and the only run off her was unearned as she improved to 5-0 in America East play.
Bouchard’s game-winning homer went to center field off Celeste Verdolivo to open the sixth.
“It was crushed,” said Coutts, whose team also received a run-scoring single from freshman pinch-hitter Maddie Decker in the seventh after fellow freshman Meghan Royle doubled to open the inning.
Chloe Douglass ran for Royle and scored on Decker’s single.
Erika Leonard homered to open the scoring in the first inning but Albany tied it in the third on Kayla Bailey’s bunt single, her steal of second, Kelly Costello’s infield hit and an infield error.
Bouchard had a double to go with her homer and went 4-for-5 in the doubleheader to raise her batting average to .416.
Rachel Carlson had two singles for Maine.
In the opener, Durando struck out eight and walked four while throwing 130 pitches, 79 for strikes.
“She pitched well. We’ve had trouble with her,” said Coutts. “We swung at a lot of pitches out of the strike zone which isn’t like us.”
Flowers threw 75 strikes among her 127 pitches and walked three.
Maine took a 1-0 lead in the first when Leonard walked, stole second and scored on Bouchard’s base hit up the middle.
But the Bears stranded two runners in the first and two more in the second before wasting Bouchard’s leadoff single in the third.
Bouchard’s hit was Maine’s last of the game as it only had two more baserunners the rest of the way, via walks.
Albany tied it in the bottom of the third on Sarah Petzold’s leadoff single, a two-out work and Maggie Cocks’ RBI single to center.
Conrad homered to left to open the fourth.
Bouchard was the game’s only repeat hitter with two singles.
On Sunday, the Black Bears took a 3-1 lead in the top of the fifth when Royle cranked a solo homer to left and Carlson laced an RBI triple down the left-field line.
Albany answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning on Conrad’s RBI single and Chelsea Henige’s RBI groundout to second. The third run came in when Flowers gave up a bases-loaded two-out walk to McKenzie Bump.
The Black Bears scored their first run in the third when Kristen Niland hit a solo homer to left.
Durando (15-5) picked up another win despite walking seven. She struck out five.
Annie Kennedy (5-4) suffered the loss for Maine after giving up five hits and three runs in one inning after relieving Bogdanovich, who pitched the first three innings and allowed six hits and two runs.