After dropping 10 of its first 11 and starting the season 3-13, the Boston University softball team returns home later this week for the first time all year. While the homecoming will be delayed a few days, as today’s scheduled game against the University of Massachusetts has been canceled due to unplayable field conditions at the BU Softball Field, the Terriers will be happy to get back near home as they try to rejuvenate their season after a tough start.
The Terriers, who prior to last weekend had already traveled to North Carolina, Louisiana and Texas, took the show to Marietta, Ga. for last weekend’s Buzz Classic Tournament. After the first game was delayed due to rain, the Terriers opened the weekend with a 5-1 extra-inning win over Nicholls State, marking just their third win of the season.
After eight innings of scoreless ball, the Terriers and Colonels were both able to bring a run across in the ninth inning to send the game into the 10th tied at one. After senior Tiffany Finateri was put on second base in accordance with a tiebreaker rule intended to help avoid endless innings of tied ball, sophomore Jamie Hass came through in the clutch with an RBI single, scoring Finateri. But not comfortable with a one-run cushion, the Terriers were able to push four more across in the top of the 10th, on their way to a 5-1 win.
Later that afternoon, BU dropped a heartbreaking 2-1 loss, also in extra innings, to No. 16 Florida State University. The Seminoles, ranked 16th in this week’s ESPN/USA Today Softball Poll, were unable to get on the board through eight and a half innings of play, as the Terriers pulled ahead 1-0 in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by Hass.
BU was unable to add an insurance run, while Seminole pitcher Jessica van der Linden struck out her 17th and 18th batters of the day to end the Terrier threat. Van der Linden’s strikeouts proved important, as Florida State’s Elisa Vasquez knocked a two-run, walk-off homer to lift the Seminoles to a 2-1 win.
Despite the loss, and two successive losses in Marietta to Georgia State University (6-0) and Princeton University (4-2), sophomore pitcher Julie Henneke thinks the long road home ended much better than it started.
‘I think we were a little discouraged a little to start off with, but nothing that we didn’t overcome this weekend,’ Henneke said. ‘Starting off with new players, new everything, kind of just throwing it together. I think everyone kind of figured out what’s going on. And in our last couple games, especially this weekend, they were close games. FSU was a great game, Tiffany [Finateri] threw incredible, and I think the whole team was behind her on that.
‘I think we played a lot better as a team,’ Henneke said. ‘Everyone’s kind of getting comfortable in their spot and their role on the team and stepping up and doing their job a little better.’
The Terriers, whose next game is now tomorrow at Fairfield University, have a little bit of time to get their ship righted before the America East season begins on Sat., Apr. 5 against Stony Brook University. And while the long road trip to open the season did some serious damage to their record, it provided the Terriers with some tough opponents in weather a little more playable than the up and down Boston winter.
‘It gives us a chance to play outside before the weather permits us to here,’ Henneke said. ‘It gives us a lot of chances to see a lot of other teams, and also to mesh a little better.
‘I think they [the tough opponents] will really help,’ Henneke continued. ‘I think everyone has the confidence right now, everyone is really playing well.’
On a team with five freshman and six sophomores, there is plenty of acquainting and reacquainting to be done in the earlygoing of the season. And for the Terriers to repeat as America East Champions, there may be some new players stepping up after winning a starting job in these first 15 games.
‘[Freshman] Liz Alley has been starting at first [base]; she’s a big hitter,’ Henneke said. ‘Freshman Josey Mendez has stepped up at third. Her and Kate [senior Kate Abney] are battling out at that position, they’re pushing each other every day. [Freshman] Erin McDonald has done really well pitching, she’s stepped up hitting and as a big player.’
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