While many college students were enjoying the hot sun, mixed drinks and half-naked bodies running around the water and island paradises this Spring Break, the Boston University softball team was trying to make waves of its own.
The water got the best of the Terriers early on as Penn State University senior pitcher Kelly McCann pitched a complete game two-hitter to defeat the Boston University softball team, 7-0, in Tampa, Fla., at the Florida Speedline Tournament on March 5. Jennifer Tripken’s three-run inside-the-park home run capped a five-run third inning to lead the Nittany Lions (7-4), who won their fifth-straight game.
Sophomore Robyn Horrick went the distance for BU (3-3), which never seriously threatened to score after the second inning. Horrick allowed five earned runs while striking out seven for her first loss of the season.
The Terriers continued their Spring Break trip with a doubleheader split against Michigan State University on March 6. BU won the second game, 3-0, after falling in the opener by the same tally. In the opener, sophomore Tiffany Finateri allowed two earned runs on eight hits, while striking out three in seven innings. BU was held to just three hits in the game.
In the second game, freshman Abby Pauley doubled in sophomore infielder Kristen Knesek and senior outfielder Kenya Palmer in the bottom of the third inning to put the Terriers up, 2-0, early. Pauley finished 2-for-3 in the game.
Horrick improved to 3-1 on the season, allowing four hits while striking out six in the complete game shutout. The split kept the Terriers at the .500 mark with a 4-4 record on the season.
Then, Robyn King became the big kahuna of softball in Florida. The senior pitcher/first baseman took the mound for the first time in nearly a year, and the Terriers scored three times in the sixth inning to erase a 2-0 deficit en route to a 4-2 win over No. 5 Stanford University on Friday.
“It felt great getting out there after so long, and the warm weather helped a lot,” King said. “It was by far the most emotional game that we have played all year.”
King, who last pitched on April 30, 2000 in a game against Drexel University before a stress fracture in her pitching arm limited her to batting only, replaced Horrick in the fifth with runners on second and third, one out and the Terriers down, 2-0. She struck out the side.
“She was a little tentative her first few pitches,” said BU coach Amy Hayes. “But after she got her first strikeout, she was on.”
King struck out the first four batters she faced and five of nine batters total. She allowed one hit in 2 2/3 innings, earning the win in relief.
While King got BU out of a jam in the fifth, she helped win the game in the sixth. Senior catcher Leslie Linnemeyer led off the sixth with a double and, after a bunt single by Kenya Palmer, scored on senior infielder Kerry Herr’s sacrifice bunt. Junior infielder Aryn Rangel and King then followed with a pair of suicide squeezes that scored Palmer and Herr, who had reached on an error, giving the Terriers a 3-2 lead. BU added an insurance run in the top of the seventh when Kristin Knesek scored on a throwing error.
“Stanford gave us an opportunity,” Hayes said. “And the kids executed.”
However, the waves came crashing down as the Terriers seemed physically and emotionally drained during their final two games, losing to Penn State once again on Friday and then ending the tournament with a loss against South Florida on Saturday. The Terriers finished in fourth place in the tournament, missing the tournament semifinals and finals.
The women will look to bounce back from a disappointing Spring Break tournament when they face crosstown rival Boston College on Saturday.
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