VESTAL, N.Y. – Junior pitcher Brianna Roberts fired a two-hit shutout and won her school-record 20th game of the season, lifting No. 1 Binghamton (35-12) to a 3-0 win over No. 2 UMBC (20-28) in an America East Tournament winners' bracket game on Saturday afternoon at the Bearcats Sports Complex. With the victory, the Bearcats advance to the conference championship round for the first time since they won the title in 2015.

The final round of the double-elimination tournament begins at 8 a.m. Sunday against Bryant. The Bearcats, who are 2-0 in the event so far, will have two chances to win their second America East Tournament title in program history. 

Roberts allowed only five total base runners and struck out seven batters to record her sixth solo shutout of the season. She came into the game tied with Amanda Schilling, who set the previous Binghamton program record with 19 wins back in 1994.

The first strikeout of the game for Roberts, which came in the top of the first inning, also set the Binghamton team record for strikeouts in a season. The Bearcats came into the game tied with the 2013 squad with 285 strikeouts.

The 35 victories for Binghamton represents the second-best total in program history. The 1995 team won a program-record 37 times.

For the second time in as many games, Roberts and the Bearcats were locked in a pitchers' duel for much of the afternoon. Finally, sophomore second baseman Maddy Dodig broke the scoreless tie with a RBI single in the bottom of the fourth inning.

One inning later, the Bearcats got some breathing room with a pair of unearned runs. Junior first baseman Emma Lawson drew a bases-loaded walk and freshman designated player Rachel Carey followed with an RBI groundout. 

From there, Roberts retired six of the final seven batters she faced to improve to 20-2 for the season. Defensively, the Bearcats were errorless for the second game in a row.

"I was really proud of our team today," head coach Jess Bump said. "We know we are going to get everyone's best game and our girls really stuck together. We didn't have the long ball today but we were able to adjust and come through when we had to."

UMBC got solid pitching from starter Jerzie Nutile and reliever Kya Matter in six innings. Nutile, however, was tagged with the loss, dropping her record to 2-8.