With another strong pitching performance at hand, the Boston University softball team took a close game from the University of Connecticut on a solo homerun by freshman third baseman Megan Volpano.
“It was just a real good softball game,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “We got a big hit, played good defense, had good pitching… just a real good softball game.”
The Terriers (16-8, 3-0 America East) started off their offense with two outs in the first inning when senior center fielder April Setterlund went up to the plate. Setterlund, who missed two games over the weekend because of an injury, hit a single to left field. Redshirt freshman first baseman Chelsea Kehr and freshman catcher Amy Ekart both walked to load the bases. Freshman pitcher Holli Floetker stepped up to the plate and hit a line drive to first base which was caught to end the scoring threat.
UConn (11-13, 1-1 Big East) responded with its own offensive surge in the bottom half of the inning. The Huskies’ leadoff hitter, senior Julianne Towers, started off the game with a single to center field. After the next hitter struck out, junior Amy DeLuca singled to advance Towers to second. However, a fielder’s choice and a ground out to second quickly silenced UConn’s attempt.
Volpano started off the second inning for the Terriers in a big way. For the first time in her career, Volpano hit a home run, a shot to left field that would give BU the only run that it would need in the game.
“Perfect timing,” Rychcik said of Volpano’s hit. “She’s been hitting the ball pretty well. She’s hitting in the high .200s and starting to drive in some runs for us… She’s doing pretty good and just got a hold of one and rode it out of the park and that’s all we had. It’s just good to see a different part of the lineup contributing for us. It was a good hit for her and a nice way for her home run to be a game winner.”
Floetker would hold the Huskies silent until the bottom of the fifth, when UConn junior Amy Vaughan would single to left to start off the inning. Once again, Floetker was able to strike out the next batter. Junior Jennifer Ward then singled to short to put a runner in scoring position. BU’s defense stepped up, getting the runner out at third on a fielder’s choice and then ending the inning on a ground ball to Volpano.
Floetker would only give up these four hits over the course of her seven-inning shutout. She would end the game with six strikeouts and only one walk. No Husky made it past second base.
“It takes a lot of pressure off the rest of us,” Rychcik said of his team’s pitching. “You have to play defense still, but it takes a little pressure off our hitting… Our [pitching] staff is pretty good and pretty stingy. We played real good D behind [Floetker] today and that’s the way you end up with a shutout. Holli threw a real nice game and [Erin Schuppert and Whitney Tuthill] have been throwing really well also. It’s really nice to see. It’s a good reason as to where we’re at in the standings and record wise.”
Rychcik was also happy with his team’s response offensively to a solid outing by UConn sophomore pitcher Kiki Saveriano. Saveriano is 6-9 on the season with a 3.13 ERA. In Wednesday’s game, she gave up six hits in her complete-game effort and struck out four.
“We faced a pretty good pitcher,” Rychcik said, “and I thought we did a real good job. We hit a lot of balls hard – two or three balls went to deep center field that had a chance… We did a real good job offensively.”
The Terriers will look to keep up with this pace in their first conference games at home this weekend against University of Maine.
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