After coming out on the wrong side of a three-game series over the weekend, the Boston University softball team found a glimmer of hope during the final game of its series against Stony Brook University. The Terriers managed to outscore the Seawolves by a margin of 11-8 over the three-game weekend, but the Seawolves still defeated BU in the first two matchups.
Due to on-and-off precipitation at BU Softball Field, the second game of Saturday’s originally scheduled doubleheader was moved to precede Sunday’s. The teams still battled once on Saturday, and, despite the close final score of 1-0, the Terriers were clearly outmatched.
Stony Brook (20-8, 5-1 America East) freshman pitcher Allison Cukrov had BU’s number all game long. The Terriers (20-11, 4-2 America East) struck out a total of six times and garnered only a one hit – a single from freshman designated hitter Mandy Fernandez. Cukrov did give up four walks, but the Stony Brook defense was solid and it prevented any runs from scoring with an errorless performance. BU finished the game having left six runners on base.
The Seawolves collected 10 hits on Saturday, but the Terriers’ defensive performance was sharp enough that the home team maintained hope and proximity to its opponents throughout.
Junior Emily Roesch saved three runs from scoring – arguably on her own. In the fourth inning, the 5-foot-10 second baseman laid out to prevent a hard-hit ground ball from reaching the outfield, and hold the runners at second and third. Two batters later, Roesch took another dive to her bare-hand side and caught a low line drive to end the inning.
Despite the opportunities preserved by Roesch and the rest of the BU defense, the team simply could not produce on offense.
“I see it more in our bats than in their pitcher,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “I just see us . . . being cautious with our swings.”
On Sunday, Stony Brook decided to test BU by starting Cukrov again in the first game. For BU, junior Erin Schuppert earned the start after Holli Floetker’s loss in the series’ opener. The Terriers made adjustments, and the second game ended more evenly than the first.
The two teams exchanged hits and minor threats to score in the first two innings before BU drew first blood in the third when the Stony Brook’s shortstop committed an error and allowed sophomore pinch runner Alyssa Barsanti to score from third. However, Stony Brook quickly retaliated in the top of the fourth by scoring a pair of runs on a pair of hits.
BU tied the game in the fifth by virtue of another Stony Brook error, but the seventh inning proved to be the final deciding point of the match. Defending America East Player of the Week, Stony Brook senior Lauren Maloney, whacked a two-run homer in the top half of the final inning to put the visitors up by two.
The Terriers concocted a small rally in the final half-inning when sophomore catcher Amy Ekart drove in senior Erica Casacci, but the offense was soon halted. Cukrov forced a groundout and a fly out that left two BU baserunners on and gave the Seawolves a 4-3 victory.
Despite the loss, Rychcik was impressed by Schuppert’s performance in Sunday’s first game, and he decided to give her one more shot at the Seawolves.
“We were going to stick with [Schuppert] as long as she was in a position to keep us in the game,” Rychcik said.
The decision to stick with Schuppert proved to be a good one. In the last game of the series, she scattered seven hits and allowed just three runs. The Terriers produced sufficient offense this time around, and they left the field with an 8-3 victory.
Each of the Terriers’ runs came by way of the long ball. Fernandez initiated the scoring with a home run in the second inning that drove in three runs. In the following inning, sophomores outfielder Chelsea O’Connor and shortstop Brittany Clendenny added homers of their own. O’Connor launched a grand slam over the left field fence, which left Clendenny to bring only herself around with a solo blast.
The series landed Stony Brook in first place in America East play, where it is currently even with the University at Albany. BU now maintains third place in conference standings, but the setback suffered by the Terriers had no apparent adverse effects on Rychcik.
“We didn’t play our best games, and we were still right there with them,” Rychcik said. “When we play a little better game, and we get everything kind of clicking on all cylinders again, I think we’ll be in good shape.”
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.
