Following a winless effort at the Littlewood Classic in Tempe, Arizona, the Boston University softball team headed to Texas this past weekend to participate in the Texas A&M Invitational.
Despite their best efforts, however, the Terriers (0-10) were unable to get their first mark in the win column after a tough, five-loss weekend in the Lone Star State.
Friday’s doubleheader saw BU square off against the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the Roadrunners (15-5) started punishing Terrier pitching early on. In the top of the first, sophomore pitcher Makinna Akers struggled. After the game’s first two hitters reached base, UTSA senior Vivian Tijerina got the scoring started with an RBI single to left. Two batters later, she was brought in with catcher Tess Soefje’s three-run home run. Akers was done in just three innings, allowing 10 hits and seven earned runs. The long ball hurt the Terriers again in the fourth inning when sophomore Randee Crawford recorded a grand slam off junior pitcher Lauren Hynes.
The Terriers were lackluster at the plate, only registering four hits. Senior left fielder Mandy Fernandez, in her first game back from injury, was the only run production for the Terriers. Her two RBI double in the first was all BU could get against UTSA’s pitcher Kacy Freeze. The game was called short after five innings with UTSA winning 11-2.
Next, the Terriers took on No. 22 Texas A&M University (17-4), and their woes at the plate continued. After tossing a scoreless inning in game one of the double header, freshman pitcher Sydni Overly was able to keep it close against the Aggies. In her four innings of work, she allowed just two runs on three hits, but her lack of run support is what landed her with the loss.
Overall, BU coach Kathryn Gleason said she was impressed with Overly’s weekend performance.
“[I’m] so proud of Sydni,” she said. “She was definitely our player of the weekend. She’s been sidelined by an injury since late October, early November. For her to come in and do what she did and give us the innings she did, she gave us a chance in every game that she pitched, and that’s all we’re asking.”
The Terriers were unable to get a hit off Aggie pitcher Katie Marks until the fifth inning. The two-out single from senior first baseman Kendra Meadows was the Terriers’ only hit of the game. Hynes came in in the fifth and struggled mightily. After letting up three in the fifth, she was only able to record one out in the sixth before freshman Ashley Walters hit a walk-off three-run home run, ending the second game early by a score of 8-0.
Day two was much of the same for the Terriers, both in scheduling and scoring. The Terriers faced UTSA again and were only able to muster one hit, again off the bat of Meadows. Again, Overly pitched well but was given nothing to show for it. Overly’s three runs in 6.2 innings kept BU in the game long enough to play the regulation seven, but with no run support, the Roadrunners won it 3-1.
BU’s second game of the day was again against the Aggies. Hynes pitched another inconsistent game for the Terriers. In the first and third innings combined, she allowed just one hit and one on, while in the second and fourth, the Aggies plated seven runs, only five earned, on eight combined hits. The Terriers were able to get five hits off Marks this time, of which sophomore outfielder Moriah Connolly accounted for two, but only scored one run. Thus, the Terriers dropped their ninth straight 7-1. In the invitational’s first two days, the Terriers went 11-for-80 at the plate.
On Sunday, BU faced Illinois State University in its final game of the weekend. In the matchup against the Red Birds (8-12), the Terriers again scored just one run. Hynes’ first inning double was one of three BU hits and the only extra base hit. ISU pitcher Regan Romshek was the star of Sunday. In addition to tossing seven innings of three-hit, one-run ball, she belted two homers, driving in three of the Redbirds’ four runs. ISU would win, completing a winless weekend for the Terriers, by a score of 4-1.
Gleason offered no excuses for the Terriers’ woes at the dish over the weekend.
“It was just our approach at the plate,” she said. “We were not making things happen. Pitch to pitch, at bat to at bat and game to game. We didn’t really have anybody step up who blew us away. We had five hits here and there, but I just think that it’s a game of adjustments, and we didn’t make the adjustments.”
