It’s that part of the season and semester again – crunch time. This weekend, as classes start to come to an end and finals draw ever closer, the Boston University softball team will take a break from the books when it hosts the University at Albany in the biggest three-game series of the season with two games on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. and a final game on Sunday at noon.
“It is important,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “We don’t play it any differently. We want to win three games like we have every series we’ve played this year.”
Twice already this season – in late March against University of Maine and last weekend against University of Hartford – the Terriers (27-14, 9-3 America East) have broken out the brooms to take all three games from an AE opponent, and they will need to do the same this time if they want to make their pre-season selection as AE favorites mean anything.
First-place Albany (22-18, 11-1 AE) is two games ahead of second-place BU, so BU needs another sweep to take a one-game lead into the final week of conference play.
Rychcik stressed the importance of “winning out” the regular season schedule a week and a half ago before the team played University of Rhode Island, and is sticking to that point.
“I don’t see why we couldn’t,” Rychcik said of his team’s chances of a sweep. “If we play the way we’re supposed to play, I think we’re the best team in the conference.”
One of the biggest obstacles in BU’s way is first baseman Gina Mason, who is one of the best hitters in the league. Mason’s .393 batting average and .682 slugging percentage are good for second in the AE and first on the Great Danes. The cleanup batter also owns team highs in on-base percentage (.477), doubles (10), home runs (five) and RBIs (24).
Behind Mason on the stat sheet and ahead of her in the lineup is shortstop and two-hole hitter Adrianna Walraven with her .318 average and team-high 25 runs scored.
“We’ll work around Gina Mason,” Rychcik said. “She’s hurt us. You just have to be careful, obviously, with the better players. You don’t want them to have an opportunity to beat you up.”
Albany also benefits from one of the best AE pitching staffs with three pitchers owning sub-3.00 ERAs. Brittany Schweiger (2.11), Brittany MacFawn (2.28) and Allie Weiser (2.92) give the team a combined 2.41 ERA, behind only BU’s 2.16. MacFawn in particular has been an anchor in the mound for Albany with an 11-5 record, having finished nine of the 15 games she has started.
On the BU side, the Terriers are hoping that an AE-leading offense and pitching will produce results when it matters most. The team’s conference highs in batting average (.285), OBP (.377) and ERA have served it well during a recent hot streak that has included wins in eight out of its last ten games.
If its offensive and pitching presence is not enough, there might be one more thing going for the Terriers this weekend: the games’ location. Though BU has a 6-5 record at the BU Softball Field, Albany is an underwhelming 5-9 when away from its home at Albany Field. The Terriers may have a home field advantage during Sunday’s game in particular because BU will be honoring its three seniors – center fielder April Setterlund, pitcher Kelley Engman and outfielder Christina Valdes – before the game.
Still, Rychcik does not put much stock into home or away records.
“I throw a lot of that out,” Rychcik said. “We’ve all played on different fields, and the crowd’s emotion carries us a little ways, but we’ve struggled at home. I throw all that out and say it’s going to be a good game.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
