The Boston University softball team escaped from the record-setting winter of the Northeast to sunny Tempe, Arizona for the Littlewood Classic this weekend, but could not leave Arizona with any victories.
The Terriers (0-5), who are the preseason favorite in the Patriot League, dropped their first five games of the season in the weekend tournament.
These games marked the first of 26 road contests to start the season for BU before the team plays its home opener March 26 against Sacred Heart University.
Although this was a difficult start to the regular season for Terriers, who faced three teams this weekend ranked in the top 25 nationally, BU coach Kathryn Gleason said she was not overly concerned with results.
“It was a heck of a schedule,” said BU coach Kathryn Gleason. “We knew that going in, but these guys came out ready to play. We always talk about ‘playing the game,’ and they really came out and played the game. The most important thing that came out of the weekend is that we improved each and every game.”
Despite the loss of four key seniors from a year ago, BU has 12 returning players from a 2014 season that saw the team advance to the regional round of the NCAA tournament. In addition, the team has added eight freshmen.
The Terriers opened the tournament with a double-header on Friday against the No. 3/4 University of Oklahoma and No. 15 University of Washington.
Despite scoring in the first inning of both games, things did not go BU’s way and the team dropped both games. However, Gleason said there were some positives from the weekend.
“I really like the versatility of our team,” she said. “We can put people in different positions. It’s just a matter of getting your pitchers out there on the dirt facing opponents, and for ourselves seeing different pitching.”
In the first game against the Sooners (9-1), who won the 2013 NCAA Championship, the Terriers fell 14-4 in five innings due to run-rule. Lauren Chamberlain, a 2013 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year finalist, led the Sooners with two hits, including a three-run homer in the fourth.
The second game on Friday was not much different for BU, as it ended in a five-inning 11-3 loss.
After allowing the final six runs to Oklahoma, junior pitcher Melanie Russell (0-3) opened the second game against Washington (9-2) with a strikeout. However, the Huskies would go on to score four first-inning runs and did not surrender the lead. The resilient Terriers wouldn’t go away, though, scoring a run in the first on sophomore catcher Gabi Martinez’s walk and adding a few more in the fifth.
Saturday’s contests showed promise for BU, with senior utility player Emily Felbaum and Martinez collecting two home runs apiece, but the team still dropped both games.
“The seniors have definitely stepped up to become leaders on this team,” Gleason said. “For Emily to do that … it’s senior year. It’s time for them, and they’ve done a great job on and off the field leading this team. We had her in a [designated hitter] role for awhile. She was at second base, she was at third base and then to step up at the plate, she’s just been really confident.”
In Saturday’s first game, the University of North Texas got on the board early with two runs in the first and exploded for nine more in the top of the fourth on their way to a five-inning 14-4 victory. Reigning USA Softball Player of the Week Taylor Schoblocher led the way for the Mean Green (3-7) with a two-run homer and two-RBI double.
In the nightcap against No. 21 Arizona State University, BU fell by a score of 9-4. With the score knotted at 4-4 following Felbaum’s two-run blast in the top of the fourth, the 2011 NCAA champion Sun Devils (8-4) responded with Elizabeth Caporuscio’s three-run homer during the bottom half of the inning to seal the victory.
BU’s final game in Arizona, a Sunday morning affair against Illinois State University, was a thriller that ended in a 6-5 loss in extra innings for the Terriers.
BU held one-run leads in the first, sixth and eighth innings, but could not complete the victory. After tallying three home runs total in her first three seasons as a Terrier, Felbaum hit her third bomb of the weekend, a two-run blast in the sixth, to put the Terriers on top. Senior Kendra Meadows added a pair of RBIs as well, but the Redbirds (4-6) would not be denied.
ISU used an RBI single and three walks, including one with the bases loaded, against Russell, to pull out the win.
Going forward, the Terriers have some time off before they fly south to the Texas A&M Invitational from Feb. 27 to March 1. Gleason said she will use this time to make adjustments based on her team’s performance in Arizona.
“We came back as a staff and said these are the things we need to focus on,” she said. “And individually as well, it exposes what I need to work on. They know offensively and even defensively what they need to do, so we’ll get that done in practice before we leave for Texas.”
Nick Neville is a junior in COM studying journalism and the Sports Editor of the Daily Free Press. When he's not making a paper on Beacon Street, you can catch him working as a Sports Correspondent for the Boston Globe or helping to produce BU's only professional sports talk show, Offsides. Follow him on Twitter: @n_nebs95
