Softball Earns Pair of 2-1 Victories in DH Sweep at Bucknell

Saturday, April 17

Lewisburg, PA

12 PM

Boston University

21-2, 0

Bucknell

10-6, 0

Boston U.

Bucknell

Ali DuBois has the ball over her head as the is halfway through her pitching motion looking toward home plate.

Photo by: Stew Milne

Softball Earns Pair of 2-1 Victories in DH Sweep at Bucknell

April 17, 2021 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Game 1 Box (W, 2-1)Game 2 Box (W, 2-1)Coach Waters Postgame

LEWISBIRG, Pa. – In a battle for first place in the Patriot League standings, the Boston University softball earned a pair of 2-1 victories for the doubleheader sweep at Bucknell on Saturday afternoon.

Senior Ali DuBois (16-0) held the Bison (10-7, 7-3 PL) to just three combined hits with the help of 13 strikeouts in 10.2 innings of work to help the Terriers (22-2, 11-1 PL) extend their road win streak to 12 games. Senior Marina Sylvestri recorded a pair of RBI hits in the first game. Freshman Lauren Nett and junior Aliyah Huerta-Leipner followed up by delivering clutch two-out RBI hits in the second contest, as Nett finished the day 4-for-5.

GAME 1: BU 2, Bucknell 1

HOW IT HAPPENED

Sophomore Caitlin Coker led off with a hit-by-pitch before taking second on freshman Lauren Keleher's single and scoring on Sylvestri's RBI single.
Bucknell took advantage of an error to put a runner at third following a sac bunt and ground out, but DuBois earned a swinging strikeout to preserve the 1-0 lead.
Huerta-Leipner helped push the lead to 2-0 in the third, as she singled to right with two outs and scored on Sylvestri's RBI double.
Nett doubled to left with one out in the fourth but was stranded at third, as Bucknell's Kaiya Burton (4-3) earned a strikeout and fly out.
DuBois ended the fourth and fifth innings with a strikeout to maintain the 2-0 lead.
BU had chances to add more runs but left the bases loaded in the fifth and a runner at third in the sixth.
In the bottom half, Bucknell cut the lead in half with a fielding error, bunt single and sac fly out before stranding a runner at third on a stirkeout.
DuBois started the seventh with a strikeout but ran into trouble with three straight 3-1 balls to load the bases.
DuBois kept her record perfect though with a swinging strikeout and ground out to junior Bella Gargicevich-Almeida at second.

GAME 2: BU 2, Bucknell 1

HOW IT HAPPENED

Coker was hit by a pitch to lead off a game for the second time and made the Bison pay again by taking second on Keleher's single and Nett's two-out RBI double.
Bucknell opened with a walk, but sophomore Allison Boaz earned a 4-6-3 double play to end the threat following a strikeout.
Junior Nicole Amodio started the second with a double but was stranded at third after Kelly Toomey (4-1) earned a strikeout and fly out to end the threat.
Boaz allowed two walks but maintained the 1-0 lead entering the third.
Junior Emily Gant started the third in the circle for Boaz and earned three straight fly outs.
Gant had a strikeout to open the fourth but then walked a batter and threw a wild pitch, prompting a pitching change for DuBois, who got a ground out and strikeout.
BU had its chances to extend the lead in the sixth following Sylvestri's walk, Nett's single and a wild pitch but Bucknell earned a pair of strikeouts.
The Bison tied the game on a one-out double and two-out infield single in the bottom of the sixth to break up BU's combined no-hit bid.
Freshman Alex-Rose Molinar led off the seventh with a double before taking third on Coker's one-out single to put runners at the corners.
Bucknell got the second out with a tag at home on an infield grounder to the left side, but Huerta-Leipner put BU ahead with a two-out RBI single through the right side.
DuBois retired the side to seal her second one-run victory of the day.

DOUBLEHEADER NOTES

Finishing with a 17-3 advantage in hits, the Terriers improved to 8-0 this season in one-run victories.
DuBois surpassed BU Hall of Famer and former All-American Audrey West ('96) for No. 2 all-time in the program record book at 76 career wins, nine shy of Cassidi Hardy's ('10) record.
In her last five games, Nett is batting a stellar 8-for-11 with three doubles.
Sylvestri earned her second multi-RBI performance of the season.
BU moved to 14-7 all-time against Bucknell with its third doubleheader sweep against the Bison in four seasons after last accomplishing the feat at home in 2018 and on the road in 2017.

NEXT UP: BUCKNELL

BU will face the Bison two more times on Sunday (April 18) with the doubleheader set to begin at 12 p.m.
The Terriers will try to beat Bucknell four times in one season for the first time since 2014 when they went 2-1 at home during the regular season and then 2-0 in the PL tournament at Lehigh.