ORONO – As Aliesha Rautenberg’s marathon at-bat neared an end … and as Jess Brady stood on second base … University of Maine softball coach Deb Smith shouted to her freshman speedster and gave her one piece of advice.

“She said, ‘Don’t run into a tag,'” Brady recalled on Saturday afternoon. “And I ran into a tag.”

Well, not exactly. When Rautenberg finally put a ball into play – after going down 0-2 and fouling off six of the next seven pitches – she hit it right where Smith had thought she might: To the Binghamton shortstop.

With two outs and no force play available on Brady or pinch runner Andrea Steranko, who was at third, shortstop Melissa Lavin waited for Brady … and the tag Smith had been talking about.

Brady had other ideas: She slammed on the brakes, got into a rundown, and by the time she was tagged “out,” Steranko had already scored the winning run in a 3-2 ballgame.

“Luckily, Andrea scored first,” Brady said. “But honestly, I did not now what I was doing.”

Either way, the play capped a three-run seventh-inning rally for the Bears and gave them both a doubleheader sweep over the Bearcats and a berth in next weekend’s America East tournament, which will be held in Vermont. Maine won Saturday’s second game 3-2.

On Sunday, the Bears split with the Bearcats, losing the first game 8-3, but winning the second 9-2 to secure third place in America East. The Bears will open the first round against No. 2 Hartford on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

Maine blew a 2-0 seventh-inning lead in the first game before winning it 3-2 on a Rautenberg check-swing single to left in the bottom of the ninth. Katie Churchill, who had reached on a single, scored the game-winner.

The Black Bears and Bearcats entered the four-game weekend series with identical 10-10 league marks, but Maine held an edge in the tourney tiebreaker. That meant two UMaine wins in the four games would propel it into the tourney for the first time since 1998.

Sophomore pitcher Candace Jaegge won both games, as she entered the first game in relief of starter Jenna Merchant in the bottom of the seventh, and pitched a complete-game five-hitter in the second contest.

Merchant tired in the seventh, and her string of 24 straight scoreless innings came to an end. Jaegge entered after Merchant walked two batters and hit one with one out in the inning.

Jaegge surrendered a bases-loaded base hit to Marissa DeStasio that made it 2-1, then Jaegge unleashed a wild pitch that knotted it up.

Smith second-guessed her handling of the tiring Merchant.

“As a coach you go back and look at things, and knowing how much Jenna struggled today, I probably should have taken her out when she put the first runner on,” Smith said.

Rautenberg, one of six senior starters for the Bears, said she had a simple aim during the final at bat.

“The goal is just to get the ball in play,” she said of the 10-pitch battle with reliever Margaret Yerdon. “I just wanted to put it out there, because I know when we run and we’ve got people on base, we make things happen.”

Brady was Saturday’s star, as the freshman from Forest Hills High School in Jackman went a combined 5-for-8 and tracked down Kim Gruber’s fourth-inning blast at the base of the center-field fence in the second game. Brady’s catch was similar to the legendary 1954 Willie Mays catch on Vic Wertz’s drive, in that she fielded it on the full run, with her back completely to home plate.

On Sunday, sophomore Nicole Taylor led the Black Bears on the mound and at the plate to help them win the second game. Taylor went 3-for-3 with a two-run triple and run-scoring single.

She also earned her first victory of the season by scattering eight hits while only walking one.

Erica Sobel chipped in with a double and single while Lindsay Tibbetts singled twice and drove in a run and Brady had an RBI single.

In Sunday’s first game, Jessica Chellis led the Bearcats with a two-run double while Mary Karen Wheat earned her 11th win by scattering nine hits.

(Sunday’s First Game)

Binghamton 000 320 3 – 8 13 1

Maine 100 000 2 – 3 9 2

Wheat and Chellis; Jaegge and Bain

(Sunday’s Second Game)

Binghamton (23-25) 000 200 0 – 2 8 3

Maine (26-29) 001 521 x – 9 11 3

Yerdon and Chellis; Taylor and Tibbetts

BLACK BEARS 3, BEARCATS 2

(Saturday’s First Game, 9 innings)

Binghamton Maine

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Lavin, ss 4 0 1 0 Rautenberg, rf 4 0 1

Savidge, rf 4 0 0 0 Asadoorian, 2b 4 0 0

d-DeStasio 1 0 1 1 Hlywak, 3b 4 0 0

Richardson, 3b 4 0 0 0 Sobel, ss 4 0

Gruber, 1b 3 0 0 0 Mather, lf 3 0 0

Marg. Yerdon, p 4 0 1 0 Merchant, p 2 0

Chellis, c 4 0 0 0 b-Sherwood 1 0 1

Prievo, lf 4 0 0 0 Jaegge, p 1 0 0

M.B. Yerdon, 2b 3 1 2 0 Taylor, dh 2 0

Sweeney, cf 3 1 1 0 Tibbetts, c 0 0 0

c-Todd 0 0 0 0 e-Sirois 0 0 0

Churchill, 1b 4 1 2 0

a-Steranko 0 1 0 0

Brady, cf 4 0 3 0

Totals 34 2 6 1 Totals 33 3 10 2

a-ran for Churchill in fifth; b-singled for Merchant in sixth; c-walked for Sweeney in seventh; d-singled for Savidge in seventh; e-ran for Taylor in ninth;

Binghamton 000 000 200 ? 2

Maine 000 011 001 ? 3

E?Savidge, Gruber, Chellis, M.B. Yerdon; Hlywak; LOB?Binghamton 9, Maine9; S?Mather; SB?Rautenberg, Brady

Binghamton IP H R ER BB SO

Marg. Yerdon (L, 8-12) 8 1/3 10 3 1 3 6

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Merchant 6 1/3 5 2 2 3 4

Jaegge (L, 7-16) 2 2/3 1 0 0 0 2

The winning run scored with one out and two runners on base in the ninth.

HBP?Lavin by Merchant; WP?Jaegge; BK?Merchant; T?3:06

BLACK BEARS 3, BEARCATS 2

(Saturday’s Second Game)

Binghamton (22-24) Maine (24-28)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Lavin, ss 2 0 0 0 Rautenberg, rf 4 0 1

DeStasio, lf 3 0 1 1 Asadoorian, 2b 2 0 0

Richardson, 3b 3 0 0 0 Hlywak, 3b 3 0

Gruber, 1b 2 0 0 0 Sobel, ss 2 1 0

Marg. Yerdon dh-p 3 0 0 0 Taylor, lf 3 0

Chellis, c 3 0 1 0 Mather, dh 2 1 0

Savidge, rf 3 0 1 0 Churchill, 1b 3 0 0

M.B. Yerdon, 2b 2 1 0 0 a-Steranko 0 0

Sweeney, cf 3 1 2 0 Bain, c 2 0 0 0

b-Sherwood 1 0 0 0

Brady, cf 3 0 2 1

Totals 24 2 5 1 Totals 25 3 3 2

a-ran for Churchill in seventh; b-struck out for Bain in seventh;

Binghamton 001 010 0 ? 2

Maine 000 000 3 ? 3

E?Richardson, Wheat; Asadoorian 2, Bain; LOB?Binghamton 5, Maine 5; 2B?DeStasio, Chellis; S?Lavin 2; Asadoorian; SB?Sweeney, Rautenberg

Binghamton IP H R ER BB SO

Wheat (L, 10-11) 6 1/3 2 3 1 2 5

Marg. Yerdon 1/3 1 0 0 0 1

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Jaegge (W, 8-16) 7 5 2 1 2 3

The winning run scored with two outs and two runners on in the seventh.

WP?Wheat; Jaegge; T?1:50; ATT?125