ITHACA, N.Y. – Sporting momentum after winning its conference-opening series this past weekend, the Cornell softball team will visit non-conference foe Binghamton on Wednesday, March 27 at 3 p.m. before Ivy rival Yale heads to Ithaca for a three-game set beginning on Saturday, March 30 at 12:30 p.m. All three games against the Bulldogs will be available on ESPN+.

After struggling out of the gates to a 1-14 record, the Big Red won consecutive one-run games against Brown to take a win in its first conference series. Now Cornell enters its midweek series at Binghamton riding its first win streak of the season. Freshman Allison Kerce hit two late-inning home runs to vault the Big Red into the lead and ended the series with seven RBI, while both junior Katie Lew and freshman Ashley Delany each earned wins in the circle. Bridgette Rooney also slammed a pair of home runs in the first game and had six RBI in the contest.

Four of the top five hitters this season for head coach Julie Farlow's team are freshmen, and 105 of the 158 starts this year have been made by first year players (66 percent). Kerce paces the team in batting at .320 and has added a pair of doubles, three home runs and 12 RBI. Junior Bridgette Rooney is hitting .292 with three doubles, a pair of home runs and a team-best 12 RBI, while Miranda Lawson is batting .237 with eight runs scored and a .431 on-base percentage. As a team, the Big Red is hitting .230.

Freshman Ashley Delany leads the team with a 2-2 record and a 5.62 ERA in the circle, as all three regular pitchers have hurled at least 31 innings. Lisa Nelson and Katie Lew, last season's starters, have combined for three complete games and 63.2 innings in the circle. As a team, Cornell is fielding at a .953 clip behind them.

The Bearcats are 8-12 on the season and will be playing its home opener on Wednesday. Binghamton owns wins over Cal-Bakersfield, Cal-Northridge, Santa Clara and Rutgers and are eyeing their America East opener at UMBC this coming weekend. Both Marissa Braito (.344) and Sarah Benn (.302) are hitting better than .300, while Alex Guay has a pair of home runs and a team-high 13 RBI and Makayla Alvarez has three long-balls and eight RBI. Rayn Gibson is 4-5 with a 4.51 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 49.2 innings of work to pace the pitching staff. Tenth-year head coach Michelle Johnston has a 218-199 record and has won three conference titles (one tournament, two regular season).  

Yale is 8-14 overall and an even 3-3 in Ivy play after dropping two of three at Princeton last weekend. The Bulldogs have been led by Sydney Grobman (.393, three home runs, 16 RBI), Terra Jerpbak (.344, three doubles, eight RBI) and Olivia Vinyard (.333, two home runs, six RBI) lead the Yale offense, with Jerpbak going 5-5 with a 1.93 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 58.0 innings to lead the pitching staff. She has four complete games on the season. Yale is fielding at a .968 clip and ranks second in the Ancient Eight with a 3.50 team ERA.