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Syracuse has a habit of needing to be rescued.

Jadyn Burney’s two RBI performance that led a five-run comeback effort against Winthrop on Feb. 8. Julianna Verni’s 11 strikeout performance to scrape by 5-4 against Fairfield on Feb. 27. Madison Knight’s homer that jump-started a rally against Providence on March 3. You get the trend. A player stepping up has defined each of SU’s wins.

Sunday was no different.

Syracuse (11-7, Atlantic Coast) found itself neck and neck with UAlbany (5-7, Coastal Athletic). SU split the doubleheader, with a 2-1 loss in the first contest and a 4-2 win in the second. Madison Knight led a two-run comeback in the win from the mound and the plate. Her three-run homer in the third set the table, while her season-high seven strikeouts finished the job.

Dominance on the mound wasn’t exclusive to Knight. SU’s pitching was on point from the outset. Jackie Pengel retired the first nine UAlbany hitters she faced in order, striking out three of them and giving the SU bats a chance to get to work.

It started with Burney. Her leadoff triple in the bottom of the first marked the second consecutive game she has begun with a triple and the third where she’s logged a multi-base hit. Burney was eventually thrown out when trying to advance home on a subsequent at-bat, but her triple set the tone early for the Orange.

Lauren Fox matched Burney with a triple to left field after a Vanessa Flores flyout to begin the second frame. Fox touched home on the next at-bat to put the Orange on the board.

The bottom of the third mirrored the first two innings. Burney — who finished 2-for-4 — opened with a single, stole second and stole third, but a Taylor Davison pop out interspersed with two strikeouts from Harmony Jackson and Knight left her stranded in scoring position.

But the Great Danes began to pick up momentum at the top of the fourth. UAlbany’s Julia Pike laced a single down the left field line before Taylor Quinn reached on a fielder’s choice. Quinn took the gift and stole second on the subsequent at-bat.

With a runner in scoring position, Mary Kate Murray stepped to the plate and whacked an RBI single up the right field boundary, leveling the game. Though Murray never made it home, courtesy of a Deanna Grahek pop out, Syracuse head coach Shannon Doepking put Verni in to relieve Pengel.

The Orange and Great Danes sang the same song in the bottom of the fifth. Verni shut down three UAlbany hitters in a row before the Orange took the plate again. Rose Cano started the inning with a single to center field. Her pinch runner, Kendall Gaunt, advanced to second on a wild pitch, then third on a Burney groundout, but the effort amounted to nothing.

Following the fifth inning, Verni and UAlbany pitcher, Hayley Wieczerzak — who finished with 12 strikeouts — reduced the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to sequences of walks and routine outs. Only Verni let off a hit, a Quinn single on the second at-bat of the sixth. What began as an offensive battle turned into a question of who would break first.

The answer? Verni.

On a Katie Parisi double to left field in the top of the ninth inning, Kacey Conn scored. The Orange had no answer.

Game 2 began in the opposite fashion from the first. UAlbany pitcher Haily Errichiello shut down the Orange in the first two frames, her only slip up a Flores single to center.

The Syracuse mound was a different story; Sydney Jackson struggled in her second start of the season.

Pike and Sara Anderson doubled on the first two at-bats, quickly making the first noise. Parisi’s subsequent single drove Anderson home.

Although Jackson closed out the inning without allowing the Great Danes to expand their lead, it was too little, too late. Doepking pulled her for Knight in the bottom of the second.

After a rocky second frame — where Knight walked two and Gaelen Kelly singled — her sister Mackenzie Knight kicked off the top of the third with a bunt single. Gabby Lantier reached courtesy of Mackenzie’s out at second, before Burney walked. A Peyton Schemmer strikeout loaded the tally to two, and the rally’s viability was threatened.

SU had seen this situation in the opening contest of Sunday’s doubleheader, leaving eight runners stranded across six innings.

But Knight had bail money. It’s what has delineated Syracuse’s wins from losses this year: A single player, typically Knight, stepping up to lead the team.

She launched a three-RBI homer — her sixth on the season — over the left field wall, and the Orange never looked back.

Knight never had to face more than four hitters in the final four innings. In fact, she only faced that tally once, in the bottom of the fifth when Pike got to first off a throwing error by Erika Zamora.

Aside from the one mishap, SU’s defense shut out UAlbany’s hitters in order, with Knight contributing three strikeouts in that span.

Errichiello achieved a similar feat, notching 1-2-3 innings in all but the fifth. Errichiello walked Mackenzie, who stole second, and Lantier followed with a single and second-base steal as well. Despite the Orange having two runners in scoring position, Errichiello got her team out of the jam nearly unscathed. SU resorted to a Madelyn Lopez sacrifice fly to bring in a run.

The Orange and Great Danes went 3-for-11 and 4-for-11 at the plate in the first three innings. In the last three, they went 1-for-12 and 0-for-13, respectively.

Knight’s homer ended the game where it stood, the most recent on a list of rescues.

Published on March 8, 2026 at 10:52 pm
Contact Peter: peterhradosh@gmail.com