The Boston University softball team will travel down Commonwealth Avenue tonight to take on Boston College, hoping to keep up the momentum from its recent conference success. The crosstown rivals were originally scheduled to meet on March 31, but that game was postponed due to rain and will now be played as part of a doubleheader tonight.
The Terriers (23-15) are coming off a weekend when they took two out of three from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (21-19, 2-7). Conversely, the Eagles (12-25) have just suffered a weekend sweep at the hands of No. 7 Georgia Tech.
Just about every player in BU’s lineup played a part in their success in Baltimore this weekend. On offense, the Terriers got key contributions from junior outfielder April Setterlund, who is batting .568, as well as a home run from junior outfielder Christina Valdes, who is hitting .204.
Sophomore shortstop Emily Roesch, last year’s AE Rookie of the year, recently moved up from the seventh to the fourth spot in the batting order and chipped in three RBIs as well as two home runs over the weekend.
The Terrier pitching was also strong, as senior Cassidi Hardy threw her fourth career no-hitter on Sunday, and freshman Whitney Tuthill held UMBC to three runs on eight hits on Saturday. That duo has been responsible for a combined 20 wins so far this year.
BC’s offense is led by senior second baseman Renee Ramos, who is hitting .392 with seven home runs. However, their next-best hitter, senior third baseman Dani Weir, is batting only .267, worse than the Terriers’ top eight batters. The team’s average is .234, compared to the Terriers’ .306.
The Eagles struggled to work up any offense at all last weekend against Georgia Tech, only scoring three runs over three games. They are 3-7 in their last 10 games and have struggled mightily against conference foes in the generally strong Atlantic Coast Conference.
No Eagle pitcher has a winning record, but junior Allison Gage owns a 2.47 ERA to lead the staff. The Terriers haven’t seen much of Gage, only facing her in their last contest for two-thirds of an inning, but they will almost certainly come up against her at some point in the two games tonight.
When the Terriers and Eagles last met, on March 25, 2009, BU won 5-0 as Hardy picked up her sixth shutout of that season. Senior Taylor Peyton took the loss for the Eagles. Peyton, who this year is 5-9 with a 4.20 ERA, has only made 10 starts for the Eagles this year, but will likely also make an appearance at some point tonight.
BU has been dominant in conference play but lost some close games to non-AE opponents recently, including a pair to the No. 22 University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a 10-9 heartbreaker against the University of Connecticut in the last two weeks.
The defeats haven’t been great blows to the team’s confidence, and if anything, competing so closely with a nationally ranked team like UMass has shown the Terriers what they can do. But with less than a month left in the regular season, a win over BC can only help BU as they try to position themselves at the top of the conference.
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