Softball, Sports

Kehr-ying the load

After losing three straight games, the Boston University softball team got back on track, taking two out of three from University of Maryland-Baltimore County in dominating fashion over the weekend.

Redshirt freshman first baseman Chelsea Kehr hit a two-run walk-off home run to lift BU over University of Maryland-Baltimore County on Sunday. Photo by U-Jin Lee/DFP Staff

On Saturday, the Terriers (20-12, 6-3 America East) split a doubleheader with UMBC (19-14, 4-5 AE), winning the first game and falling to the Retrievers in the second.

“Good first game, bad second game,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “We were able to do the things we like to do the first game. Run, get on top, and in the second game we just didn’t put enough pressure on them. We were wasting at bats. I don’t think we competed hard enough.”

In the first game, BU took an early three-run lead when the first three Terriers reached base. Redshirt freshman Jayme Mask started everything off with a triple to center field. Junior left fielder Erica Casacci and senior center fielder April Setterlund then walked to fill the bases. Mask scored on a fielder’s choice hit off the bat of redshirt freshman Chelsea Kehr. With the bases still loaded, freshman third baseman Megan Volpano ripped a double to right field to score Casacci and Setterlund and give the Terriers all the runs they would need.

The run that Setterlund scored gave her 24 on the season and the career runs record with 151 runs scored during her time at BU.

The Retrievers scored all of their runs in the top of the second with two outs. BU freshman pitcher Holli Floetker gave up a two-run home run to UMBC freshman Jessica Warner to bring the score to 3-2.

BU added on five more runs during the course of the game to account for the final score of 8-2. Floetker pitched the complete game, giving up four hits and striking out eight, for her eighth win of the season.

“She gave up a homerun to a batter down in the order,” Rychcik said, “but other than that she pretty much controlled the rest of the game. You’re going to get balls down on the ground and balls in play, but it’s going to take a bunch of those to create an inning, and [the defense] made plays behind her, so she had a pretty good game.”

The Terriers did not fare as well in the second game. BU scored only once against UMBC’s ace senior Stephanie Weigman. The Terriers scored in the first inning when Mask got on base on an error. After advancing to third on a single by Casacci, Mask scored on an error by the UMBC shortstop.

The Retrievers then lit up sophomore pitcher Erin Schuppert with four runs in the top of the second inning. UMBC started off the inning with three straight doubles and tacked on another hit to take the lead.

“I like to think really that that’s enough for our offense,” Rychcik said. “She didn’t throw real bad. She just had a tough inning… I like to think our offense had enough to score enough runs, but our offense didn’t put anything together.”

UMBC had one more run in the fifth to bring the final score to 5-1.

“We really kind of got down on ourselves,” Rychcik said. “We just beat ourselves up a little bit at times. We did a few good things out there, but I think we should just hit the ball, and just put a little more pressure on them.”

BU faced off against Weigman once again on Sunday. This time, however, the Terriers were able to start off strong with three runs in the first inning. Mask and Casacci used their signature speed to get the offense going.

“Our offense is pretty good when Jayme, Erica and those guys get on,” Rychcik said. “They create a lot of havoc with their speed. That’s what it takes. That’s the pressure our top half can put. When they have good days we roll pretty good…They’re a huge part of our offense, they put pressure, they advance bases with stolen bases.”

UMBC immediately fought back in the top of the second with a lead-off home run by junior Katie Ferguson to left field. The Retrievers would grab one more run in the inning on a single to first base.

From that point forward, both sides of the diamond were quiet up at the plate until the top of the sixth inning when UMBC tied the game on an unearned run. Rychcik then took the ball out of sophomore pitcher Whitney Tuthill’s hands and put it back into Floetker’s to finish off the game.

The score would remain tied until the bottom of the eighth inning when Volpano singled to the right side to get on base with the winning run. Kehr then stood up to the plate and hit a high fly ball to left center field that bounced off the scoreboard for a two-run, walk-off home run.

“I really didn’t even think it was going out,” Kehr said. “All I was thinking was, hit the ball as hard as you freaking can and hope it goes somewhere.”

For Rychcik, the extra-inning win was key for the progression of the Terriers’ season.

“We needed that win,” Rychcik said. “It was an important win for us… I hope it does carry some momentum and we can feel good about ourselves for a couple of days.”

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