April 1, 2012
Box Score (Game One) | Box Score (Game Two)
BOSTON - The Boston University softball team split a pair of games with America East foe Stony Brook on Sunday afternoon at the BU Softball Field. The Seawolves triumphed in the first game, 4-3, before the Terriers won the second affair, 8-3.
Stony Brook took two of the three games in the series from BU, as the Terriers are now 20-11 on the season and 4-2 in the America East.
Junior Erin Schuppert pitched both games for the Terriers and moved her record to 4-4 on the season. Schuppert struck out 11 batters while allowing 13 hits and seven runs in 14.0 innings of work.
In the first game of the day, sophomore Jayme Mask led BU with two hits, including her team-leading third triple of the year. Classmates Megan Volpano and Amy Ekart each recorded a hit and an RBI while the Terriers also got hits from sophomore Brittany Clendenny and freshman Mandy Fernandez.
The game was scoreless until the bottom half of the third inning when BU struck first. Sophomore Chelsea Kehr led off for the Terriers and got on base after being hit by the pitch. Sophomore Alyssa Barsanti stepped in to pinch run for Kehr and was advanced to second base with a sacrifice bunt by Emily Felbaum. Mask then singled to right field to move the runner to third. Erica Casacci then stepped up to bat and got on base with an error by the shortstop, allowing Barsanti to head home and put BU up, 1-0.
The Seawolves responded in the top of the fourth with a pair of runs to take the 2-1 lead. With the bases loaded, an error in the field allowed Alyssa Hawley to get on base and two runs to score for Stony Brook to take the advantage.
The Terriers later tied the game in the bottom of the fifth. Mask knocked a triple to center field and an error by Stony Brook’s shortstop allowed Volpano to get on base and Mask to score, knotting the game at 2-2 after five innings.
Stony Brook broke the tie in the top of the seventh with a two-run homer by Lauren Maloney to put the Seawolves ahead, 4-2. In their last at-bat, BU managed one run driven in by Ekart’s single up the middle but the Terriers could not complete the comeback as they fell, 4-3.
The bats came alive for BU in the second game of the day with home runs from Fernandez and Clendenny and a grand slam from Chelsea O’Connor. O’Connor led the Terriers by going 3-for-3 at the plate with four RBIs while Fernandez and Clendenny each posted two hits.
Following singles by O’Connor and Clendenny, Fernandez got the scoring started in the bottom of the second as she knocked her third three-run homer of the season out of right field to put BU ahead, 3-0.
Stony Brook stranded two runners on base in the top of the third before BU came out and added five more runs in the bottom half of the frame. Casacci and Volpano each registered base hits and Ekart reached on an error in the field to load the bases. O’Connor then stepped up to the plate and knocked her first grand slam out to center field.
With no outs in the inning, the Seawolves changed pitchers, but that did not stop BU, as Clendenny homered to center field to give BU its fifth run of the inning with no outs. The Seawolves defense clamped down to end the inning with three groundouts and an 8-0 Terriers’ lead.
Nicole Hagerty got Stony Brook on the board in the top of the fourth with a two-run homer to left field. Both teams were held scoreless in the fifth inning before the Seawolves added a run in the top of the sixth. The Seawolves were unable to rally and BU took the 8-3 victory and prevented Stony Brook from sweeping the three-game series.
The Terriers return to action on Wednesday, April 4, with a non-conference game against Bryant. It will be the second meeting of the season between the Terriers and the Bulldogs, as BU defeated Bryant, 13-3, with a school-record 19 hits, on March 21. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the BU Softball Field.
