Just over a month ago, sophomore pitcher Holli Floetker took to the pitcher’s circle in the Boston University softball team’s first game against Boston College of the season. Riding a five-game winning streak, the Terriers found success in a pitchers’ duel that Floetker ultimately won 1-0.
Now, once again having won five straight, the Terriers (29-13, 8-3 America East) will take on the Eagles (22-22), but this time they must travel down Comm. Ave. to face a BC squad that is hungry to avenge its loss from earlier this year.
“They’re going to want to play us,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “They’re going to want revenge. We beat them 1-0 [at the BU Softball Field], and Holly threw a great game that day.”
During the game, BU scored early with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Sophomore right fielder Jayme Mask walked to lead off the game and moved to second on a fielder’s choice. After Mask advanced to third, junior second baseman Emily Roesch notched a single down the right field line to bring in the Terriers’ speedy leadoff hitter.
Floetker took care of the rest, as she limited the Eagles to four hits during the course of her complete-game shutout. Floetker struck out five during the game, which was her third shutout and ninth complete game of the season.
While Floetker had a dominating performance over the Eagles in March and led the Terriers to victory on Wednesday with her 5-3 win over Providence College, Rychcik said that he was still unsure of who would take the mound during Thursday’s game.
Floetker gave up five hits during her seven-inning effort, striking out five Wednesday afternoon.
“I’ve got to see how [Floetker and junior Whitney Tuthill] feel tomorrow,” Rychcik said. “I think it’ll be probably about three o’clock that I make that decision . . . when I see both of them.”
Tuthill also had a solid start against Providence during the second half of the Terriers’ doubleheader with the Friars. Tuthill gave up only one run during her complete-game outing. She gave up six hits and struck out six.
“Off the top of my head, I don’t think either of them is really feeling up to going seven innings [on Thursday],” Rychcik said of Floetker and Tuthill. “I don’t know that, but sometimes you know you get in that groove and it kind of starts working a bit.
While the Terriers have experienced success as of late, they will have to deal with a slightly depleted lineup, as several members of BU’s squad are injured or hurting, including Mask, who did not play on Wednesday.
“I hope the team that showed up [on Wednesday] show’s up [on Thursday] and we kind of gut it out a bit,” Rychcik said. “I told the girls, we’re going to have to do this for two weeks because in the huddle, I named about seven or eight kids who are hurt, and everybody knows it.
“This is what it’s going to take – if it takes a diving catch, a bunt, or a sacrifice, or a fly ball, or a three-hitter, one-hitter or shutout. Whatever it takes we just got to have everybody pulling, and that’s what I think [Thursday’s] going to be like too.”
The Eagles will enter the contest having recently snapped a six-game losing streak with a two-game sweep of Dartmouth College on Wednesday. BC held off Dartmouth in the first game to win 3-2, and then had an offensive barrage in the second game, winning 7-0.
“We’re a pretty good club right now, so it’s nice,” Rychcik said. “I like the fact that we’re winning. . . . I’ll tell the kids though, Boston College, they don’t care what happened on [Wednesday]. We’re going to start all over. [BC’s] going to look at things and say, ‘Hey it’s our turn to beat them.’”
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