Baseball is no stranger to wacky injuries. Wade Boggs once hurt his back when he fell trying to put on a pair of cowboy boots. John Smoltz burnt his chest when he ironed a shirt while wearing it. David Wells cut up his non-pitching hand when he stumbled over a barstool at his house and crushed a wine glass he was carrying.
Softball isn’t immune to such unpredictable, and therefore unpreventable, injuries either. And you can now add Brittany Detwiler’s name to that less-than-illustrious list.
The Boston University hurler stepped on a softball and rolled her ankle in the bottom of the second inning of yesterday’s 7-4 loss to Boston College, leaving the Terriers short their ace and without one of their few upperclassmen. Detwiler, who had pitched the first two innings of the game allowing three runs, left on crutches with a bag of ice strapped on her left ankle in the fourth inning.
“She rolled her ankle in the dugout, there was some pretty good swelling,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “We’re sort of shortened on our staff right now. We’ll make some adjustments.”
Rychcik said he would assess the severity of Detwiler’s injury tomorrow and make a decision on whether she’ll be available for this weekend’s set against the University of Vermont.
“I’ll be surprised if she’s back this week, just judging by the swelling,” he said.
Detwiler clearly did not have her best stuff to start the game, anyway. The lanky righthander surrendered three runs on four hits and a walk, while striking out one in two innings. Her rising fastball routinely sailed above the strike zone, and the Eagle hitters weren’t chasing.
“Brit came out a bit flat, she didn’t have good spots off the bat,” Rychcik said.
Detwiler was replaced by freshman phenom Cassidi Hardy in the top of the third. Hardy, who hadn’t allowed a run in her previous 19 innings of work — a streak that consisted of three straight complete-game shutouts (including a mercy-rule shortened, five inning game) — immediately extended her scoreless stretch by setting down all three Eagles in the third.
Hardy extended her streak to 22 innings, pitching two more 1-2-3 frames in the fourth and fifth. But in the sixth inning, her luck finally ran out.
A ball glanced off the glove of centerfielder Shayne Lotito and second baseman Brandi Shields let a ball slip through her legs for an error, putting runners at the corners with no outs. Then Hardy walked Ashley Obrest to the load the bases for Elena Ferrero, who came into the game with three home runs already this season.
Ferrero quickly made it four when she deposited a 0-1 Hardy offering into the shrubbery in right field for a grand slam, turning what had been a 3-3 tie into a 7-3 BC advantage.
“I felt good about Cassidi, she got into some trouble there in the sixth,” Rychcik said. “She left one out over the middle with the bases loaded and you can’t do that to a good hitter. [Ferrero] put a pretty good bat on that ball.”
With Hardy’s streak over and Detwiler long gone, Rychcik had the seldom-used Melody Popravak warming up in the bullpen. But it seemed as if he had no intention of using her.
“We’ve been getting her in the bullpen to work on some things,” Rychcik said. “She’s trying to find her groove. She wants to help us this year.”
Detwiler’s injury leaves the Terriers with a thin pitching staff heading into the start of conference play this weekend against the Catamounts. But Rychcik said he had no qualms about starting Hardy in all three games if he had too. Because of the lack of strain the underhanded delivery places on the arm, he said it’s not unusual in softball for a team to ride out one pitcher.
“I have no hesitation saying, ‘You’re pitching two on Saturday and one on Sunday,’ Rychcik said, referring to Hardy. “When we recruited her, she was down in the Florida sun and threw eight games in one weekend.”
Rychcik added Lotito was a candidate to pitch on emergency duty.
“Lotito can throw, she threw in high school,” Rychcik said. “She’s a good athlete.”
Wacky Thursday
Detwiler’s strange injury was not the only oddity that occurred Thursday afternoon. After Hardy delivered a pitch in the top of the fourth, Terrier catcher Christy Leath was set to throw back to the mound. Only her throw hit Eagle Kimmy Hopkin, who was up at bat at the time, in the side of the head.
The strike didn’t faze Hopkin, who just readjusted her helmet and stepped back in.
In the bottom of the seventh, a male BC fan had to be escorted out by BU’s Assistant Athletic Director Alan Weinberger after being ejected by home plate umpire Rich Silva. The fan was tossed after engaging in a loud verbal altercation with Silva from his seat in the stands.
‘Lot’ of Speed
Lotito showed Thursday why she bats at the top of the Terrier lineup. The speedy centerfielder has absolute wheels. She beat out an infield single in the bottom of the first and nearly did so again in the third.
Going Streaking
Freshman Melissa Dubay stepped to the plate in the sixth inning with a modest five-game hit streak on the line, when she smacked her first home run of the year (and her career) over the ‘Boston University’ banner in dead centerfield. She had walked and struck out in her two previous plate appearances.
Losing Louie
Rychcik provided an update on the injured Chiya Louie — and it doesn’t look good. Rychcik said the junior outfielder, out for most of the season with a torn meniscus in the knee, will most likely shut it down soon.
“I don’t see her coming back,” the coach said. “Surgery is the most likely option. In the next few days, we’re going to sit down and discuss when the best time for it will be.”
