Erin Bogdanovich pitched a four-hitter and the University of Maine backed her with a tournament-record 18 hits on Saturday afternoon as the Black Bears claimed the America East softball championship with a 14-1, five-inning victory over the University at Albany at Vestal, New York.
Coach Mike Coutts’ team (28-19) claimed the program’s first conference title since 2004 and earned America East’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Softball Championship.
Maine will be heading south to take on No. 16 Georgia, the host of the Athens Regional, at 3:30 p.m. Friday.
Georgia (40-17) was one of 16 teams to receive a regional site in the opening round of the NCAA Tourney. Ole Miss eliminated the Bulldogs in the SEC Tourney 4-2 on Wednesday.
The Maine-Georgia game will be broadcast on ESPN3 following the first game in the Athens Regional between Oklahoma State (29-24) and Northwestern (26-26) in a four-team double elimination bracket.
Defending national champion Florida is the overall number one seed for the NCAA Tourney.
Coutts said the Black Bears entered the America East tournament with a lot of confidence.
“I think they felt very well-prepared to be in the tournament,” he said Saturday.
UMaine swept through the tourney in three straight games behind strong pitching and an opportunistic offense. Bogdanovich (10-4), a left-hander from South Portland, struck out two and did not walk a batter in the championship game.
In three appearances at Vestal, she limited opponents to two runs and 12 hits in 13⅓ innings and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
“She pitched great again [Saturday],” Coutts said. “She’s such a great competitor.”
The Black Bears beat up on UAlbany pitchers on Saturday, with Janelle Bouchard posting three hits, including a two-run home run, and two RBI singles. Erica Leonard drove in four runs with a three-run double and a run-scoring single.
Bouchard and Lennon along with Felicia Lennon, who singled three times and drove in two runs on Saturday, were named to the all-tournament team.
UMaine also received a double, two singles and an RBI from Kristen Niland while Rachel Carlson (double, RBI) and Meghan Royle contributed two hits each. Rachel Harvey added a run-scoring double.
Elizabeth Snow led Albany with a solo home run that broke up the shutout bid in the fourth inning. Kelly Costello rapped a double and a single.
The Black Bears provided Bogdanovich with all the runs she would need in the first inning against losing pitcher Caitlin Cooper. Leonard walked and moved up on Carlson’s single to left field.
Bouchard plated the first run with a single to right. One out later, Lennon hit an RBI single, Derrick lifted a run-scoring single down the left-field line and Niland posted a two-out RBI hit as UMaine grabbed a 4-0 advantage.
The Bears made it 6-0 in the second inning when Leonard again drew a walk and trotted home on Bouchard’s two-run homer.
“Hitting’s so contagious,” Coutts said. “Once somebody gets hot, everybody starts hitting and it just kind of went crazy from there.”
UMaine put the game out of reach, tacking on seven hits and five runs in the third. Leonard, Bouchard and Lennon stroked run-scoring singles while Carlson and Harvey rapped RBI doubles off reliever Celeste Verdolivo.
The onslaught continued in the fourth as Leonard slugged a three-run double to center field to push the lead to make it 14-0.
Snow led off the Albany fourth with her homer to put the Great Danes on the board.
UMaine, which benefitted from a first-round bye and clinched a spot in the championship round by beating Binghamton on Friday, stuck with the approach it has taken all season.
“Our biggest thing that we talked a lot about was that every game was a big game,” Coutts said. “It didn’t matter that we were playing Quinnipiac in the middle of the year or this, you just had to approach everything the same way.”
That dynamic also enabled the Black Bears to remain relaxed and confident, regardless of the situation.
“We told them that you didn’t need to play great, you needed to play consistently good and the great plays will take care of themselves,” Coutts said.