Mention defense in baseball or softball to most people and a few things may immediately come to mind: Willie Mays’ ‘The Catch’ in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series; the golden mitt of Ozzie Smith at the shortstop position during the 1980s and early 1990s; the ball going off the noggin of Jose Canseco in the outfield and going over the fence for a home run; Buckner.
All are highlight or blooper-reel plays that have proven just how much influence defense can have out on the diamond. Yet sometimes it is the seemingly routine plays in the field that can turn any ordinary game into a spectacular one.
Ample evidence for such a case was shown in the Boston University softball team’s 5-0 victory over Boston College on Chestnut Hill yesterday.
Take the Eagles’ first at-bat of the game, for instance. BC’s leadoff hitter, freshman catcher Brittany Wilkins, stepped into the batter’s box against BU senior pitcher Cassidi Hardy trying to set the table for her teammates. When the aluminum first hit the horsehide, it appeared that she had done just that. Wilkins cracked a shot to right-center that fell in the gap between BU center fielder April Setterlund and right fielder Rachel Moeller. The freshman got a little greedy and took a wide turn from first in an attempt to stretch her hit into a double.
Wrong move.
Setterlund gathered the ball on the warning track and fired a near-perfect strike to shortstop Melissa Dubay, who waited patiently for Wilkins before tagging her for the game’s first out. That would be the only hit for the Eagles on the afternoon.
Flash forward an inning to the point after a Hardy walk allowed BC its second baserunner of the game, junior third baseman Dani Weir. Like her predecessor the inning before, Weir also believed it a good idea to get herself into scoring position and attempted to steal second. BU catcher Christy Leath, however, would have none of it, gunning down Weir in a bang-bang play at second. That would be the last time an Eagle would even get a whiff of the second-base bag on the day.
The next time a BC player even got a few steps off first came with a runner on base and one out in the fourth. After hitting a drive to deep left that flew just a few feet to the left of the foul pole that would have made it a 4-2 contest had it been fair, BC pitcher Taylor Peyton instead lined out to Dubay, who then used a quick release to throw out Wilkins, who appeared to have thought that the ball would squeak through the infield, at first to end the inning.
Had any of those defensive plays gone the other way, it would have meant a potential rally-starter for BC as each would have resulted in a runner in scoring position with less than two outs. Instead, it allowed Hardy to face only 22 batters on the afternoon, one above the minimum, for a complete game after she walked another batter in the sixth that was consequently left on base.
BU coach Shawn Rychcik saw the defensive performance as just what the team is supposed to be doing.
‘[They were] just doing their job,’ Rychcik said. ‘That’s what we practice for. I don’t think we had any spectacular plays. I just thought there were opportunities to make outs, and we made the outs. We got a big out to start the game to throw out the kid at second base, and we get the lineout to short and turn a double play.
‘We believe this team is very good at getting outs when they are there to be taken. If it’s a double play, a pop up, a mistake on the offensive side of the other team where they run themselves out to end an inning, we’ve been very good at getting the extra out if it’s there to be gotten. I’m very happy with that.’
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