On Tuesday afternoon, the Boston University softball team will seek to bounce back from two forgettable Patriot League series when it takes on the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
In order for the Terriers (7-20, 1-4 Patriot League) to emerge victorious against the River Hawks (10-17), they will have to build on the one victory they had over this past weekend against the College of the Holy Cross.
In that game against the Crusaders (3-8, 2-4 Patriot League), the Terriers won 9-1 Saturday in just five innings and had every facet of their game working for them. Junior pitcher Melanie Russell was extremely impressive in her first win of the season, allowing just six hits and one run while striking out six in her complete game. Likewise, the Terrier bats were finding the ball well as four of their 10 hits counted for extra bases and four Terriers had multiple hit days.
BU coach Kathryn Gleason said she was happy with her crew in Saturday’s second game because the Terriers were finally able to implement what’s been talked about in practice.
“It’s just contagious,” she said. “I think they were feeling good at the plate and any time the top of the lineup gets on … we just combine that speed and get them into scoring position. We talked about that last week at practice. We’re getting them into to scoring position, and now we gotta bring them in. They did a great job of that. And we talk about our game goals — scoring first, scoring in multiple innings, constant pitching changes — we did those things in game two.”
While Saturday’s offensive surge was certainly refreshing, the Terriers have been lacking on the offensive side of the ball throughout the 2015 season. In the four other Patriot League games that the Terriers have played this season, the stats aren’t pretty. BU batted just .283 and recorded only seven extra base hits and a measly 18 runs.
On the whole, the Terriers have had trouble scoring runs this season. As a team, they’ve scored just 101 runs in their first 27 games. At this point last year, the Terriers plated nearly 50 more runs as they scored 149 runs in their first 27. And in 2015, the Terriers have only been able to score in isolated incidents. The Terriers have been able to score more than five runs only three times so far this season and have scored one run or fewer on nine separate occasions.
The problem has been their inability to get extra base hits. On the season, BU has amassed just 35, which is good for fifth in the Patriot League. Rivals Bucknell University and the United States Military Academy both have more doubles (48 and 46, respectively) than the Terriers have extra base hits.
“The key word is just consistency,” Gleason said. “That’s what we’re looking for, and I think a lot of that has to do with just getting back to playing again and just getting outside and getting on the dirt. [We’re looking for] consistency with our defense and consistency with our pitchers. Getting them out on the dirt and getting them out to play, and [a key], especially with the offense, is just seeing live pitching. We’ve only really been outside, besides the Lehigh game, just one time on the turf to practice, so I think that’s hopefully going to contribute to our being more consistent.”
Fortunately for the Terriers, the River Hawks have been struggling as of late, dropping eight of their last 10 games. During that stretch, the River Hawks’ two victories came by just one run while their eight losses came at an average of nearly six runs per game. In those eight games, UMass Lowell batted just .238.
While teams can have a tendency to ease up when they see a struggling team on the upcoming schedule, Gleason said she won’t let her team fall into that trap.
“There’s no room for that right now,” she said. “Lowell’s a good team. They’re well coached. They have a new coach in Danielle Henderson who coached at [the University of Massachusetts Amherst] … so I know Danielle. I know her competitiveness. She’s an Olympic pitcher, and she’s a competitor … I know she’ll have them ready to play us, and we’ll be ready to play them.”
