Give me a break: Softball goes 9-4 during spring break

The Boston University softball team had its first break in almost ten days on Monday after a 14-game spring break in which the Terriers went 9-4 during its busiest week of the season.

The Terriers (14-8) started off the week much like they did last year during spring break, splitting a doubleheader on the first day of the University of Florida Under Armour Showcase. After dropping their first game of the day 1-0 to the University of Northern Iowa, the Terriers came back to defeat Bradley University 5-3 in one of their highest scoring games of the week.

The win against Bradley marked the beginning of a four-game winning streak for the Terriers. After defeating No. 23 Syracuse University 1-0 and University of South Carolina Upstate 4-2 on Saturday, BU finished out the weekend’s official play with a 2-1 victory over Miami University on Sunday.

The weekend ended with an interesting matchup versus the Netherlands National Team in an exhibition game. The Terriers lost, 3-2.

“That’s a national team; they’re going to play for their country,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “So that’s quite an experienced group and the girls didn’t really think twice about it. They just came up and played the game like they’re supposed to.”

The Under Armour Showcase continued for three more days as BU defeated Fordham University 4-3 in extra innings in the first game of the week, before dropping its final two games of the tournament. The first of the back-to-back losses came in a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Long Island University, and the second in a 3-1 extra-inning loss to the University of North Florida.

Rychcik said the pitchers were the true stars of the week. After going every game leading up to spring break without a victory, both juniors Whitney Tuthill and Erin Schuppert combined to only allow 12 earned runs in 59.1 innings pitched. Sophomore Holli Floetker continued to pitch well, only allowing four earned runs in her 33 innings pitched.

“That pitching enabled us to win 1-0 games,” Rychcik said.

Rychcik said even though the Terriers offense may not have performed as well as he would have liked, the strong pitching proved to be the catalyst for victory over the week.

“If we only scored a couple runs, that’s because it’s just the way it is against those big teams,” Rychcik said. “But we were able to get out big hits when we needed them.”

Rychcik stressed the strain put on the team, which spent the whole week in hotels, never able to take a break as they played a game almost every day, including four doubleheaders.

“You never really get a break from the games,” Rychcik said, “because you’re on break but you’re in the hotel and you never really get away. You’re going to the park every day.”

After the Under Armor Showcase, BU moved to its second tournament of the week with The Game Tournament. The Terriers split the first day of play, defeating Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University 3-2 in extra innings before falling to the University of Illinois 5-4. The Terriers had defeated Illinois 8-1 earlier this season.

In their highest scoring game of the tournament, the Terriers defeated Coastal Carolina University 7-1 before shutting out the University of Maryland in a 1-0 victory. Rychcik considered the victory over Maryland one of the Terriers’ best of the week, along with the team’s victories against Syracuse and Northern Iowa.

“Overall I thought we had a pretty good trip,” Rychcik said. “There are a few games I’d like to have back, but overall I’m pretty pleased with all of them.”

After sweeping both their opponents on the second day of The Game Tournament, the Terriers continued their winning streak, defeating Northern Illinois University 2-0 in the final game of spring break.

“[After this past week] a new part of our season starts,” Rychcik said. “The part where we’re back up north, we’re not traveling like we were, and conference is going to start up.”