Four games, 32 innings and not a single run.
The Boston University softball team shut out the University of Vermont four times this weekend over four games. Senior pitcher Robyn King won two of the games, allowing only one hit, in the second contest on Saturday and bringing her record to 7-1.
In her first start Friday, King threw her second career no-hitter. Sophomore Robyn Horrick pitched the other two games, including an 11-inning contest on Saturday and brought her record to 9-5.
The Terriers have won 11 straight games, and they currently stand at 21-11 (9-3 America East). The defeats dropped the Catamounts to 5-16 (0-12 America East).
Furthermore, the Terriers have not given up a single run against the Catamounts since April 30, 1999. Last season, BU also shut out Vermont in all four regular season games.
“I feel really good about this past weekend,” BU coach Amy Hayes said.
And why shouldn’t she? The Terriers were not only dominant on the mound. The Terriers scored less than five runs in only one game in the series, winning by scores of 5-0, 5-0 and 8-0 in the others.
“Tiffany Finateri absolutely tore it up,” Hayes said.
Indeed, the sophomore continued her torrid hitting, including a 3-for-4 performance in King’s one-hitter. Overall, the offense has stepped up after an early season slump and is now one of the team’s strengths.
“Everybody is doing it at the plate,” King said. “It’s not like last year where we had to depend on a few people to get runs across.”
King continued the dominance that saw her earn the America East Pitcher of the Week last week. With two outs in the seventh inning of Saturday’s game, she gave up her only hit of the weekend.
“I felt they were helping me out a little,” King said of Vermont’s unsuccessful approach to hitting her. “They were swinging at a lot of bad pitches and looking at a lot of good pitches.”
“You can’t ask for more than that,” Hayes said of King’s weekend.
King showed once more that her comeback from offseason surgery is virtually complete, and she has come back no worse for the wear.
“I actually felt better on Saturday than I did on Friday,” King said. “That was the first time I’ve felt good on the second day of a series this season.”
And Horrick’s performance left her coach and her teammates marveling at her toughness.
“I think [Horrick’s] performance was a testament to her strength and stamina,” Hayes said.
King agreed, saying Horrick’s presence on the mound is a confidence booster for teammates.
Horrick has rebounded from a tough start, and has been an integral component of the Terriers’ recent success.
“We had really good defense behind both [King and Horrick],” Hayes said.
The defense, like the hitting, was a problem earlier in the season, now it is a non-issue, as all of BU’s pitchers can count on the fielders to support them.
While the games were not home games, they were played at Malvern Field, where BU still has not lost a game.
The Terriers face the University of Maine today at 2 p.m. at Malvern in a chance to keep improving their America East record.
“I think this is where we should be,” Hayes said of her team’s position in the standings. “All we can do is play our game.”
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