Seeking its first victory of the 2015 season, the Boston University softball team will travel to the Texas A&M Invitational to play three different teams in five games this upcoming weekend.
Coming off the Littlewood Classic in Arizona, the Terriers (0-5) could not gain any traction against three ranked teams to secure a victory as they were outscored 54-20 in the five games.
“The momentum we had, which some might not say momentum, but we improved each and every game in Arizona,” said BU coach Kathryn Gleason. “We got better hitting, pitching and defensively, so it was nice to come back and have a few days of rest and not play last weekend.”
This time, BU will only face one ranked team, No. 22 Texas A&M (13-4) in the second and fourth games played.
The other two teams playing in the Invitational are the University of Texas at San Antonio and Illinois State University.
“I loved our aggressive at bats. Changing the gameplan and adjusting are something that we’ve worked on and making those adjustments in game and at-bat to at-bat are something we’ve worked on,” Gleason said. “We gave up a little too many runs, but we scored enough runs in a few games to get the win, but we got to keep the energy above the bases.”
The Terriers played the Redbirds (6-9) in the Littlewood Classic, falling 6-5 in extra innings. Senior third basemen Emily Felbaum hit her third homerun of the tournament in the game, and junior pitcher Melanie Russell allowed the game-winning hit in that one on a bases-loaded walk.
Sophomore Jordan de los Reyes leads the Redbirds with six homeruns and 14 RBI with a .302 average.
Meanwhile, the Aggies have freshman Tori Vidales, who is also lighting it up with six homeruns and 16 RBI to lead the team in both categories. Junior Katie Marks is the Aggies’ top pitcher with a 1.60 ERA and a perfect 4-0 record on the young season.
For the Terriers, their top pitcher right now is sophomore Makinna Akers, who has a 7.20 ERA in four appearances. The Terrier staff as a whole currently has a 9.48 collective ERA.
“It’s huge to play these games and get to play these games in the stadium that we’re playing them in,” Gleason said. “Arizona State University has a great stadium and crowd and A&M has what they call the ‘12th man’ and at Temple University, they have a big following. To put us in those environments, later on down the road in NCAA games, we’ll be ready for that, so it won’t be a big thing to us.
“We’ve played in front of big crowds, hostile crowds and home crowds.”
UTSA (12-4) relies on the power of brute force as the team currently has 26 homeruns on the year, and five players have four or more homers. Also, four players have a slugging percentage of .756 or higher, further proving the team’s formidability at the plate.
The Roadrunners will look to exploit the Terriers’ weakness, fielding. That is where BU struggles the most, owning a .911 fielding percentage compared to opponents, who manage a .971 percentage.
“We’ve been playing a lot of team defense, and I think we’re ready to hit the dirt again, get outside and hit the grass against an opponent,” Gleason said. “The offense is what surprised me the most. We did put the ball in play, and we did score some runs. In the fall, that was something we struggled with, and I wanted to get back to that.”
Though Gleason said the offense was a positive, there is still a lot of time before Patriot League play starts, giving her ample opportunity to tinker with the team’s lineup.
“We’ll wait and see. We’re always switching in the preseason and tinkering the lineup,” Gleason said. “It’s never set in stone. I’d like to say we’ll have a lineup set for Patriot League, but injuries happen. People get hurt, so I’m still playing with it. I had a couple lineups out in Arizona, and that really meshed together. Mandy is coming back from injury, so putting her back into the mix will be a big deal for us, and we’ll see what happens.”
