Syracuse begins 2026 season with 2 losses at Gamecock Invitational
Syracuse softball opened its 2026 season with a pair of losses at the Gamecock Invitational Friday. Angelina Grevi | Daily Orange File Photo
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Syracuse started its 2025 season on a scintillating note. The Orange rattled off a program-record 11 consecutive wins to begin last year’s campaign.
That mark will stand at least another year longer.
SU (0-2, Atlantic Coast) commenced its 2026 season with the opposite sort of streak, dropping its first two games of the campaign at the Gamecock Invitational Friday. The Orange fell 5-1 to Binghamton (1-1, America East) before getting crushed 15-2 by No. 14 South Carolina (1-1, Southeastern).
SU set the table well against Binghamton early. Orange batters reached base to lead off four of the seven innings played, including each of the first three. Jadyn Burney (walk, first), Madelyn Lopez (walk, second), and Gabby Lantier (single, third) all took off and swiped second base, too. Burney advanced to third in the bottom of the first after tagging up on a Vanessa Flores fly out.
But Kaimi Tulua struck out swinging to end the first; Kendall Gaunt, Milija Seaton and Grace Weaver struck out successively to close the second; and Lauren Fox went down swinging and Flores flied out to center to exit the third with the Orange down 4-0.
It wasn’t so much a lack of timely hitting as a lack of hitting altogether. Syracuse stranded eight runners in their morning loss to the Bearcats, hitting a measly .083 with runners in scoring position. But the same sad adjectives can be applied to the Orange’s dismal 4-for-24 (.167) hitting line against Binghamton.
Key returning pieces faltered in key moments. Neither Flores nor Tulua — batting third and fourth in the Orange order — recorded a hit. Despite being among Syracuse’s more productive bats last season, the pair went a combined 0-for-7 at the plate and left four runners on base.
A stale offense left Syracuse with zero margin for error. The Orange made two gaffes in the field. The Bearcat’s first run reached base as a result of the first of Seaton’s two errors in the morning game, then advanced to second and scoring position on a wild pitch. Binghamton’s second, and ultimately deciding, run scored on a hit batter with the bases loaded.
Still, there were clear positives to build on. Freshmen — Gaunt, Weaver and Harmony Jackson with a single each — accounted for three of SU’s four hits facing Binghamton. Weaver drove in the Orange’s lone run of the morning. She put together an impressive plate appearance in the fifth, battling back from a two-strike count and twice fouling off Bearcats starter Brianna Roberts for a full count, before drawing a walk. And she gunned down a runner attempting to take third in the top of the fourth inning.
Syracuse’s three stolen bases were promising, too. The tally follows Syracuse totaling 28 steals last season, second fewest in the ACC.
But there were few positives against South Carolina. The game got so out of hand, it was called after five innings.
Through four innings in the field, Syracuse made four errors. The Orange struck four batters, too.
The Gamecocks were noticeably aggressive — and successful — running the bases, too, consistently scoring from second.
In the bottom of the first, bases loaded, Gaunt fielded a grounder up the middle and tossed the ball to Lauren Fox, making the play at second. Fox looked to first but chose to hold on to the ball instead of throwing it. She was surprised by Shae Anderson rounding third and barreling down the base line, making a late throw home for the second score of the play.
The same result came about when the Gamecocks continued to run through a called third out at first base in the bottom of the third inning. The play was overturned after a successful challenge, and South Carolina added two more runs.
This season’s early schedule — the Gamecocks were the first of three nonconference opponents the Orange are set to play in February who advanced to at least the NCAA Tournament’s Superregional Round in 2025 — will be the toughest Syracuse has faced in recent memory.
The Orange’s 2026 season is only a day, and two games, old. But SU looks more like the team that finished 2025 with 14 losses in its last 22 games than the team that started the season with 11 straight victories.
