Agape Freedom Sports LLC

WRITTEN BY: JERIC YURKANIN

The box score will say Bradley 9, Binghamton 3, but that final line barely hints at how this game actually breathed, twisted, and tilted over seven innings in Auburn, Alabama.

For four innings, it was a grind. A chess match. One of those games where every at-bat feels like it’s being played on a knife’s edge, where momentum doesn’t swing so much as it creeps, inch by inch, waiting for someone brave enough to grab it.

Bradley came in searching for traction early in the season. Binghamton came in young, still learning how to survive at the Division I level, still learning that good pitches don’t always get hit, and that one bad bounce can unravel an entire inning if you let it.

The first three innings passed quietly on the scoreboard, but not without tension. Bradley put runners on early in the first, stringing together singles and a walk, but Binghamton managed to bend without breaking. That pattern — pressure, escape, reset — repeated itself. The Bearcats scratched first blood in the third, manufacturing a run with a double and a well-timed RBI knock that finally cracked the stalemate. For a moment, it felt like Binghamton might be finding its footing.

That moment didn’t last long.

By the fourth inning, Bradley began doing what veteran teams do best: forcing the issue and letting the defense make mistakes. The Braves didn’t need a barrage of home runs to seize control — though power would show up later — they needed patience, contact, and pressure. A triple into the gap. A single punched through the middle. An error that should have ended the inning but instead kept the door wide open.

And once that door opened, Bradley kicked it off the hinges.

The fifth inning told the story of the game. Bradley sent hitters to the plate with confidence and intent, not chasing, not rushing, but relentlessly putting balls in play. A two-run homer flipped the scoreboard and the energy in one swing. Another ball left the infield on a line. Then another runner reached on an error. Then another advanced on a misplay. The inning kept stretching, kept breathing, kept demanding outs that Binghamton just couldn’t cleanly secure.

By the time the dust settled, Bradley had hung four runs in the frame, and the game’s tone had shifted from cautious to commanding.

Still, Binghamton didn’t fold. The Bearcats answered with a solo home run of their own — a reminder that young teams can still bite — and for a brief stretch, there was life again. The dugout responded. The energy ticked upward. The crowd stirred.

But Bradley never gave momentum back.

The sixth inning became the separation point — not because of fireworks, but because of composure. Hit batters. Walks. Fielding miscues. Sacrifice flies. Ground balls that turned into runs because someone was hustling and someone else was late. It wasn’t pretty baseball, but it was effective, and sometimes that’s all that matters.

Bradley scored four more runs without recording a hit in the inning. Let that sink in.

That’s pressure baseball. That’s understanding how to weaponize patience. That’s knowing that if you keep making the other team field the ball, eventually something cracks.

In the circle, Abby Rusher was everything Bradley needed her to be. Calm. Efficient. Unbothered. She scattered four hits across seven innings, struck out seven, and never let Binghamton’s brief sparks turn into sustained fire. Even when the Bearcats connected — even when the ball left the yard — she reset immediately, attacking the zone and trusting her defense to make the routine plays.

That steadiness mattered. Especially for a young Binghamton lineup still learning how to build innings instead of chasing them.

The final inning provided one last reminder of that youth. A pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the seventh gave the Bearcats their third run — a swing that mattered, even if the outcome didn’t change. Because for young players, those moments carry forward. They’re seeds planted for later in the season, for later years.

And it’s impossible to talk about Binghamton’s youth without mentioning Taylor Cawley.

The Valley View graduate and freshman Bearcat didn’t see action in this game, but her presence still looms large — especially for those back home watching this program closely. Early college seasons are rarely linear. Some days you’re in the lineup. Some days you’re learning from the dugout. Some days the most important work happens between innings, between games, between moments when the spotlight isn’t yours yet.

Cawley’s journey is just beginning, and games like this — wins, losses, messy innings, teaching moments — are all part of the foundation. For a freshman class learning the speed, depth, and unforgiving nature of Division I softball, there are no shortcuts. Only reps. Only patience. Only growth.

Bradley finished with seven hits and nine runs, but the stat that told the truest story was the five errors charged to Binghamton. Not because the Bearcats lacked effort — they didn’t — but because college softball punishes hesitation. The ball moves faster. The runners move smarter. The margin for “almost” disappears.

This game wasn’t decided by one swing. It was decided by dozens of small moments stacking on top of each other until the weight became too much to hold back.

For Bradley, it was a needed win — proof that execution can beat flash, and that patience can be just as lethal as power.

For Binghamton, it was another chapter in a season that’s still being written — one filled with lessons that don’t show up neatly in the box score but matter just as much in the long run.

And for those watching from Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially Valley View, it was another reminder that the leap from high school dominance to Division I survival is real, demanding, and unforgiving — but also full of opportunity.

Some days you play.

Some days you watch.

Some days you learn.

All of it counts.

And February games in Auburn have a way of shaping what April and May can eventually become. A turn around.