After a fairly successful season opening that consisted of five games over the course of three days, the Boston University softball team will travel to Tennessee, where it will compete in the University of Tennessee Tournament.
With a 3-2 record, BU coach Shawn Rychcik is looking forward to getting his team some playing experience in the atmosphere of upper echelon NCAA softball.
“One thing we want to do is [play] at fields and stadiums that we’re going to possibly play in at regionals,” Rychcik said. “That type of atmosphere and that type of stadium.”
The Terriers will certainly be given a taste of excellent competition. On day one (March 2) of the Tennessee trip, BU squares off against the University of Memphis of the prodigious Conference USA, as well as East Tennessee State University.
On March 3, BU takes on Middle Tennessee State, as well as Murray State University. Fewer than 24 hours later, the Terriers will battle their toughest opponent of the series, No. 17 University of Louisville. Last year, the Cardinals defeated the Terriers 5-0 in the Louisville Red and Black Tournament.
“This tournament’s definitely going to be a test, and anybody on the schedule can beat us,” Rychcik said. “It’s just a different place from where we’ve been, and it’s a different opportunity for the girls.”
Though the season may be too young to develop a solid understanding of the team’s overall success and consistency, a few offensive leaders have risen above the pack.
Sophomore third baseman Megan Volpano currently leads the squad with a .400 batting average. As far as run production, Volpano and sophomore outfielder Chelsea O’Connor are tied for the lead with six RBIs each. However, O’Connor is tied for the team-high in runs (five) and homeruns (one), and leads the team in doubles with two.
Defensively, BU has been quite similar to its opponents thus far. Each has committed seven errors on the season, and the Terriers’ cumulative fielding percentage (95.3 percent) is only slightly lower than that of their opposition (95.5 percent).
With all facets of play in consideration, Rychcik believes that improvement in pitching will be the most beneficial for his team.
“I really have to stick true to my pitching,” Rychcik said. “Not that it’s a worry . . .. If we are going to advance through our conference, and advance through the NCAAs, all three of [the pitchers] are going to have to pitch better.”
The three pitchers Rychcik referenced are sophomore Holli Floetker and juniors Whitney Tuthill and Erin Schuppert.
Floetker, who was recently named America East Pitcher of the Week, will take on most of the pitching burden this season. After pitching just more than 120 innings and finishing with a 14-5 record in the 2011 campaign, Floetker has already pitched 24 of the 35 innings played this year. Each of BU’s three wins on the season, as well as one loss, has come from the arm of Floetker. The 6-foot-0 sophomore has accrued a 3.00 ERA and struck out a total of 13 batters in her three starts this season.
Though Rychcik puts great emphasis on the ability of his team’s pitchers, he also respects the importance of the aspects of the game that reinforce good pitching.
“Defensively, we are going to have to be very solid,” said Rychcik. “Our pitchers are going to put the ball in play. We’re not going to strike out 10 or 12 [batters] a game, so we are going to have to make plays defensively.”
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.
