Crosstown letdown

Despite a pair of solid pitching performances, the Boston University softball team couldn’t seem to get anything going on offense as it dropped both games of a doubleheader against Boston College on Tuesday afternoon.

The Terriers (23-17, 7-2) lost the first game 5-0 and the second 2-1 in extra innings. Senior pitcher Cassidi Hardy took the loss in the first game, giving up four earned runs, and freshman Whitney Tuthill was charged with the loss of the second despite throwing an impressive one-hitter.

The Eagles (14-25, 0-12) took an early lead when senior Amy Tunstall hit a two-run homer to score senior Allie Thunstrom. BU had a few scattered base runners in the following innings &- junior right fielder Christina Valdes singled, and junior center fielder April Setterlund drew a walk &- but they were all stranded on base, as their teammates had trouble hitting the ball out of the infield.

For the most part, BC wasn’t exactly knocking Hardy’s pitches off of the outfield fence, either &- rather, they bunted their way on base twice, using their speed and taking advantage of shaky plays in the field that were not recorded as errors. Thunstrom, also the leading scorer on the BC women’s hockey team, managed to get on base on a pair of relatively weak hits and ended up scoring twice as a result.

BU kept the deficit to two runs until the fifth inning, when Hardy loaded the bases and then walked in Thunstrom to make it 3-0. In the sixth, BC added to its lead with an RBI single from Thunstrom and a grounder to third that allowed freshman pitcher Nicole D’Argento to score after reaching third on a passed ball.

“We were kind of in between the first game,” BU coach Shawn Rychcik said of the offense. “[D’Argento] was throwing some changeups and we were caught in between &- we weren’t hitting the changeups, but we weren’t catching up to the hard stuff, and you’ve either got to be in or out. She’s got our number, I guess.”

D’Argento improved her record to 5-9 with the win. Junior Allison Gage, whose 2.58 ERA leads the team, took the circle for the Eagles in the second game and held BU to three hits, striking out five. Tuthill outpitched her, striking out six and giving up just one single to Thunstrom in the third. However, that single scored junior shortstop Rene Delagrammaticas, who had walked, giving BC a 1-0 lead.

Neither team could manage another hit until the top of the sixth, when senior first baseman Rachel Hebert sent a changeup from Gage flying back over the left field wall to tie the score at 1-1. Tuthill set down all three BC batters in order in both the sixth and seventh to preserve the tie and send the game to extra innings. The Terriers had not played past the seventh inning yet this year.

BU couldn’t score in the top of the eighth, despite having freshman outfielder Taylor Cowan placed on second base due to the NCAA tiebreaker rule. BC’s runner on second, Carolyn Jones, made it to third on a sacrifice bunt and then scored to win the game when sophomore shortstop Emily Roesch made a throwing error in an attempt to get her out at the plate.

Junior catcher Caitlin Rentler, who was hurt when a BC runner collided with her in the first game, played the second game but is questionable for Thursday against the University of Rhode Island.

“She’s got a sprained ankle at this point, so she’ll be day-to-day,” Rychcik said. “She made it through that game, and we’ll see if there’s swelling or anything in the next day and go from there.”

Whether she can return on Thursday or not, Rentler’s injury was just another addition to the list of frustrations the Terriers encountered in their first two-loss outing since March 9.

“It’s kind of a disappointing effort on the day in general,” Rychcik said. “We didn’t have our best games, and we wasted a real good pitching performance, a one-hitter, and we ended up losing. We didn’t swing the bats real well, and I know we’re better than what we showed today.”