The Boston University softball team entered Thursday’s game against Boston College with a number of streaks on the line.
No runs allowed in 42 innings. 15 straight wins at home, six coming this year. Twelve wins in a row overall.
An unearned run in the first inning erased it all. After such a dominant run, one might think the team would be disappointed to see all their streaks come to an end.
Not these Terriers.
‘I don’t think we think about the streak[s],’ said BU head coach Amy Hayes.
It’s hard to believe that the team could avoid thinking about the streaks, with all the BU softball team has accomplished over the past few weeks.
For starters, coming into Thursday’s game, the Terriers had won 12 straight games. Since dropping a 1-0 decision in the first game of a doubleheader at Stony Brook University, BU had outscored its opponents 65-8. In the last six games, senior Tiffany Finateri, sophomore Julie Henneke and freshman Erin McDonald had baffled opposing hitters, not allowing a single run.
The Terriers had won six games in a row at the BU Softball Field this season and 15 overall dating back to last year. On Ashford Street, Terrier pitchers had allowed only one run while the offense provided plenty of run support, scoring 26 runs of their own.
Leave it to BC to ruin it all.
But the softball team isn’t worrying about it. After all, it’s only one game.
‘When you think about streaks, that’s when you get in trouble,’ Hayes said.
Senior second baseman Kristin Knesek proved her coach right as struggled to recall ‘the streak.’
‘We won what, 12 in a row?’ she asked.
Instead of harping on the end of their streaks, the Terriers will instead use this loss as a learning experience, according to Knesek.
‘We’ll take the good things from it,’ she said about the game. ‘Other than the first inning, we played really good defense.’
As a senior, Knesek has seen a lot in her four years wearing the scarlet and white. She has seen long winning streaks begin and end, and she believes the formula for the Terriers to return to their winning ways is simple.
‘Move on and be ready for the weekend [series at Binghamton University],’ the second baseman said. ‘Come out strong this weekend and play like we’ve been playing.’
And as the Terriers make the trip to Binghamton, the Terriers look to begin a new streak.
‘When we get to conference [games], we don’t expect to lose,’ Knesek said. ‘We expect to win.’
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