Orange Offense Awakens in Binghamton, Blows away Bearcats 

By Tom Russo 

CitrusTV Softball Beat Reporter 

VESTAL, N.Y. – The one thing that may be reliable about the Syracuse Orange’s offense is its unreliability. After 10 runs off of Pittsburgh on Friday, Syracuse (20-25, 8-10 Atlantic Coast) dove right back down, scoring a combined two runs over the last two games of the series. Today it was right back up, dominating Binghamton (15-25, 4-10 America East) 14-0 in five innings today. 

It seemed as though all the dormant bats in the Syracuse lineup awoke from their slumbers in one cataclysmic eruption. Alicia Hansen went 1-8 in the Pittsburgh series.  She was 3-3 today, tallying three RBIs and three runs while hitting a double and a triple.

Gabby Teran came in 0 for her last 5.  She went 1-2, scoring three runs including a steal of home. Lailoni Mayfield, 2-9 against Pittsburgh, failed to record a hit, but she did manage two RBIs on a SAC fly and an RBI groundout. 

Then came the big boppers. Hannah Dossett hit 1-7 over the weekend against the Panthers. Today, she went 2-3 with her first home run of the season, a solo shot in Syracuse’s five-run third. But the biggest eruption of all came from Neli Casares-Maher.

The Syracuse shortstop saw her first action since March 23rd when she returned for the Pittsburgh series last weekend. She went 0-4. Today Casares-Maher officially returned with a vengeance, going 2-3 with a pair of three-run homers to power the Orange. 

If Casares-Maher and Dossett can return to their pre-injury form, when both were batting above .300 and sitting fourth and fifth in the Syracuse lineup, it should go a long way to establishing some much needed consistency on the offensive side of the ball for the Orange.   

In the circle though, Miranda Hearn continues to be a revelation of late.  With five shutout innings today, Hearn has given up only one run in her last five appearances combined, solidifying her status as the number two arm in the Syracuse rotation. 

The Orange will now head to Atlanta this weekend for a three-game series with Georgia Tech (27-23, 8-10 Atlantic Coast), with the first game being Friday at 4:00 p.m.   

twrusso@syr.edu ǀ @TomRusso24