After taking the first three games of America East play, the Boston University softball team is looking to carry over their powerful pitching and offensive performances into a non-conference road game against University of Connecticut Wednesday afternoon.
The Terriers (14-8, 3-0 AE) dominated Stony Brook University last weekend, scoring 32 runs in just 15 innings of play. Leading the team’s batters was redshirt freshman infielder Chelsea Kehr, who was named the AE Rookie of the Week for her efforts. During the course of the weekend, Kehr went 6-for-12 with two grand slams and a triple. Her two grand slams accounted for her eight RBIs on the weekend.
Freshman pitcher Holli Floetker was another one of the many Terriers to have a strong offensive outing against Stony Brook. Floetker, who was the designated hitter in the second and third games, went 4-for-5 with seven RBIs.
On the mound, BU’s pitching only gave up three runs, improving their already-AE-leading ERA of 1.87. The Terriers have three of the top five individual ERAs in their conference with sophomores Erin Schuppert (0.86) and Whitney Tuthill (1.56) coming in at second and third in AE, respectively. Floetker rounds out the top five with a 1.77 ERA.
“Things went pretty good all the way around,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “I’d like to see us get a little better defensively, but we hit the ball well, we pitched well, so we want to just keep going consistently. That’s our goal every day.”
UConn (11-12, 1-1 Big East) also started conference play last weekend in a two-game series against Georgetown University. After losing 5-3 in the first game, the Huskies’ bats livened up for an offensive barrage that led to a 14-6 victory.
The Huskies have three players hitting over .300 – senior Julianne Towers, sophomore Kim Silva and freshman Andrea Huelsenbeck. Towers is leading the team with a .375 batting average and 19 RBIs.
UConn’s two main starting pitchers are sophomore Kiki Saveriano (6-8) and junior Ali Adelman (4-4). Saveriano leads the team in pitching with a 3.31 ERA. The team’s overall ERA of 3.80 lands it right in the middle of the Big East.
While offense has been one of BU’s strongest areas of play, the team may have one major hurdle to overcome in the game against UConn: senior center fielder April Setterlund may not be able to play. Setterlund, who went 1-for-2 with an RBI and a walk in the first game of the Stony Brook series, was taken out of the second game after just one inning with an undisclosed injury. Setterlund is leading the team with a .393 batting average and 21 RBIs.
Despite the possibility of not having his star hitter in the lineup, Rychcik did not seem too concerned about the team’s offense.
“We just need everybody to do their part,” Rychcik said. “I think we’ve got enough fire power that even without her, without any one person in our lineup, we should be OK. Just as a group, I’m hoping everybody does their part and that should be enough.”
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