The Boston University softball team will face a litmus test of sorts today at No. 23 University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The Terriers (18-10) are riding an eight-game win streak, but will have their hands full with the Minutewomen (21-7), who enter with a seven-game win streak of their own.
UMass owns the all-time series against BU, 8-2, and the Minutewomen are coming off a season where they set a program record for winning percentage, going 41-10 on the season.
“We’re as good as we believe we are,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “I don’t think if we beat UMass we’re a good team, and if we don’t, we’re not a good team. For us, it’s just a hurdle, and we’d just like to beat UMass Any team that beats UMass, especially out of the northeast, is very highly regarded.
“We haven’t beaten UMass since I’ve been here. I know one year they had a 50-something home win streak. They do pretty well at home, but we’re feeling pretty good going in there. We’re playing well ourselves.”
UMass boasts a strong pitching staff, ranked second in the Atlantic-10 Conference with a 1.74 team ERA, led by sophomore hurler Sara Plourde, who leads the nation with 302 strikeouts. In UMass’s game against Boston College yesterday, she struck out 20 in a one-hit effort.
The Terriers, however, have a strong offense to counter the UMass pitching staff. They lead America East with a .307 team batting average, while UMass sports a .297 team clip.
“We’re going to have to work hard [against Plourde],” Rychcik said. “We’re not going to have 12, 14 hits like we usually do. We’ll need to get some timely hitting, but it might only take two or three. I think it will be more along the lines of where our hits really matter, and if we can make our hits matter, we’ll be in a good spot.”
Junior outfielder April Setterlund continues to impress with a .595 batting average 28 games into the season. Last week, Setterlund became the first Terrier ever to earn NFCA National Player of the Week honors, after putting up a .929 batting average, .947 on base percentage and 2.071 on slugging percentage on the week.
“I keep telling everyone that she can’t keep this up, and she keeps proving me wrong,” Rychcik said. “I’ve been saying that nobody is going to bat .500, .600 for the season, and every week she seems to actually take it up, so I think I’ll continue to say it won’t happen. I don’t know what she’s going to end up with. She’s having a year like I’ve never seen.”
Yet the Terriers are not a one-woman team. Senior pitcher Cassidi Hardy and freshman pitcher Whitney Tuthill gained their own accolades this week, as Hardy earned AE Player of the Week honors and Tuthill earned AE Rookie of the Week honors.
After their game at UMass today, the Terriers will defend their undefeated conference record against the University of Connecticut at home on Thursday.
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