It was another triumphant weekend for the Boston University softball team, which swept a three-game series with Binghamton University to move into first place in America East.
The Terriers (25-18, 9-2) won 7-3 and 3-1 on Saturday and 7-6 on Sunday. Binghamton (21-15, 6-9) had carried a four-game winning streak into the weekend, while BU came in with a three-game losing streak, but the Terrier offense was back to its usual form with 22 hits over three games.
The most spectacular moment of the weekend was sophomore shortstop Emily Roesch’s walk-off grand slam in Saturday’s first game. With the score tied, 3-3, Binghamton freshman pitcher Rhoda Marsteller gave up a triple to senior first baseman Rachel Hebert and a pair of walks to sophomore second baseman Erica Casacci and junior outfielder April Setterlund to load the bases for Roesch.
“I said, “You’ve been here before. You’re going to get a pitch and hit it off the scoreboard,'” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik of his conference with Roesch before the at-bat. “She didn’t listen to me. She hit it over the scoreboard.”
His intuition, while maybe not dead-on, was pretty close. Marsteller’s first pitch came down the middle, and Roesch drove a towering fly ball over the left-field wall to win the game.
“She had a great day at batting practice yesterday, hit a bunch of balls just like that,” Rychcik said. “Rarely will I go out and say something like that, but I really had a good feeling that time.”
After three scoreless frames, the Terriers had found themselves down 1-0 in the fourth inning of that game after a home run by Binghamton junior catcher Deannie Plemon. Senior third baseman Rachel Moeller gave BU a 3-1 lead in the fifth with a three-run homer that scored Casacci and Setterlund. The Bearcats tied it up in the top of the seventh with a pair of RBI singles before Roesch’s game-winning drive.
The second contest was a low-scoring battle between BU freshman pitcher Whitney Tuthill and Binghamton sophomore pitcher Kristen Emerling. Tuthill only struck out two batters but got several more to ground out harmlessly in the first few innings. Her pitching kept the score 0-0 until the bottom of the fifth when she led off with a home run, her sixth of the year.
Junior outfielder Christina Valdes, who had a solid weekend at the plate, singled, stole second and then made it to third on a passed ball. Hebert drove her in with a single to left field to give BU a 2-0 lead.
Setterlund led off the bottom of the sixth with her 13th double of the year, and Moeller walked. With Tuthill at the plate, the pair went for a double steal, and Plemon’s throw to third missed by several feet, allowing Setterlund to score for the 3-1 win.
“I just look for opportunities,” Rychcik said of the Terriers’ aggressive baserunning. “We haven’t been hitting great so I was going to put pressure on people, too, say that we just need a ground ball and we’ll try to score a run, rather than “we have to get a hit.'”
The Terriers scored once in the first inning of Sunday’s game, but they also stranded three on base. Setterlund doubled again, and Roesch brought her home with a drive to the warning track. Moeller walked and Tuthill was hit by a pitch, but freshman left fielder Taylor Cowan was unable to bring them home, popping up to shallow left.
Two more runners, junior catcher Caitlin Rentler and Casacci, were left on base in the second. Then Rentler hit a triple from the eighth spot in the order to bring home Moeller and Cowan. Valdes, in turn, drove her in with a single up the third base line to make the score 4-0.
Senior pitcher Cassidi Hardy gave up a two-run homer in the fourth, but the Terriers increased their lead with another double steal in the bottom of the inning. Once again, the throw to third bounced into the outfield, and Setterlund scored. Roesch, who had been hit by a pitch, scored on an error to increase the lead to 6-2.
Hardy loaded the bases, then walked in a run in the top of the fifth and was replaced by Tuthill, who got BU out of the inning with just one more run scored. But in the top of the seventh, Binghamton brought two runs home on a single and a double to tie the game.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Setterlund hit a rolling grounder to short that looked like a sure out. But the throw sailed over the first baseman’s head, and Valdes scored from third to give the Terriers the 7-6 win.
“I’ll take three wins in conference,” Rychcik said.
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