BOSTON - Senior Caitlin Coker went 4-for-4 with two RBIs while junior Lauren Keleher was 2-for-4 with three RBIs as the No. 25 and top-seeded Boston University softball team advanced to the Patriot League Championship Round for the seventh consecutive year with an 8-3 win over Lehigh on Friday afternoon at the BU Softball Field.

Coker, the reigning PL Scholar-Athlete and Defensive Player of the Year, also stole two bases and scored one run in an impressive performance to help BU become the second Division I school in the Northeast overall and first since 2002 to reach 50 wins in a single season . Keleher's three RBIs came on a bases-clearing triple during a five-run second inning that put the game out of reach.

PL Pitcher of the Year Allison Boaz (23-4) was terrific in the circle for BU, striking out eight, scattering four hits and allowing just two earned runs in the complete-game victory. It was Boaz's fifth game with eight or more strikeouts this season, having most recently struck out eight Black Knights in a 9-1 win over Army West Point on April 28.

Seven different Terriers recorded a hit, with five of those players also knocking in a run. Seven different Terriers scored the team's eight runs, with Keleher crossing home plate twice, and eight of the Terriers' nine starters reached base.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• BU sent 10 batters to the plate in an explosive bottom of the second.
• Junior Lauren Nett led off with a single, advanced to second after freshman Brooke Deppiesse reached on a bunt single, and then scored thanks to an RBI single by junior Kate Pryor.
• Senior Audrey Sellers walked to load the bases for Keleher, who cleared them all with a triple to right center.
• Junior Kayla Roncin then singled home Keleher to make it 5-0.
• Boaz struck out a pair in the top of the fourth to keep the Terriers in front.
• Lehigh took advantage of a two-out error in the fifth to plate its first run of the game, as Josie Charles recorded an RBI triple, but Boaz's third strikeout of the frame stranded Charles at third and kept BU ahead, 5-1.
• The Terriers scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to take an 8-1 lead. Coker drove in two of those three runs with a two-out single that plated Keleher and sophomore Tyesha Williams.
• Coker then stole second and scored on a bloop single by graduate student Emily Gant that landed just past the second-base bag.
• A two-run homer in the top of the seventh brought Lehigh within five, but Boaz recovered to retire the next three Mountain Hawks she faced, including the top two hitters in Lehigh's order by way of the K, to close out the win.

GAME NOTES

• UMass is the only other Division I school in the Northeast to record 50 wins in a single season, going 53-13 in 2002.
• Keleher has recorded an RBI triple in both games this weekend and is 4-for-7 (.571) with five RBIs across the two victories.
• BU has recorded an extra-base hit in each of its last 14 games.
• The Terriers improved to 21-4 all-time in the Patriot League tournament with the win.
• Boaz owns a 0.63 ERA in her last eight appearances.

UP NEXT

• BU will need just one win on Saturday to clinch the program's sixth Patriot League title.
• The first game against Army West Point, a 3-2 elimination game winner over Bucknell and 6-2 victor against the Mountain Hawks, is scheduled for 12 p.m.
• The Terriers and Black Knights are meeting in the championship round for the first time since 2016.