BRIGHTON, Mass. – The No. 21/22 Boston University softball team opened up its Patriot League title defense with a 2-0 victory over Army West Point, as sophomore Kasey Ricard fired a one-hit shutout Thursday morning.
 
BU (50-4-1) scored a run in both the third and fourth innings en route to becoming not only the first NCAA Division I program in 2024 but also the fastest ever squad located in the Northeast to reach 50 wins. Posting half of those victories, Ricard (25-3) took a perfect game into the top of the seventh before Ashton White recorded the Black Knights' lone hit with a single to left center.
 
Named 2024 Patriot League Pitcher of the Year and a Top 26 finalist for USA Softball's Collegiate Player of the Year, Ricard recorded six strikeouts en route to her NCAA leading 15th shutout of the season. Graduate student Allison Boaz, recipient of the last two Pitcher of the Year nods, scored the go-ahead run thanks to a third-inning triple and classmate Audrey Sellers' RBI grounder. 2021 PL Tournament MVP Lauren Nett delivered a pair of hits, including an RBI double for insurance in the fourth.
  
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Ricard struck out the side in the second and added her fourth strikeout in the top of the third.
• Boaz launched an 0-1 pitch toward right for her fourth triple of the season and then touched home plate when Sellers knocked her in off an Army error for the game's first run.
• BU went on to load the bases with one out on a single and error, but the Black Knights got out the jam by turning a double play.
• Sophomore Brooke Deppiesse reached third off two errors to lead off the fourth before scoring on a bloop double by Nett for a 2-0 lead.
• The Terriers got a two-out rally started in the fifth with a single from graduate student Caitlin Coker followed by a walk by freshman Kylie Doherty but a groundout prevented any insurance runs.
• Nett reached second in the sixth on a single and senior Kate Pryor's sac bunt before the Black Knights earned a strikeout and infield pop up.
• Army broke up Ricard's bid for perfection in the seventh, but she responded to the one-out single with a strikeout and fly out to earn the shutout.

 UP NEXT

• BU will return to campus to host Bucknell on Friday (May 10) with a spot in the championship round on the line starting at 12 p.m.
• The third-seeded Bison bested second-seeded Lehigh, 1-0, in Thursday's opening round.
• BU swept the three-game series against Bucknell back on April 20-21 but only managed two combined runs in 25 innings of action with seven runs, three earned, occurring in the fifth inning of the 7-0 game-one victory.
• Eliminating the Black Knights in the third game of Thursday's tripleheader, the Mountain Hawks will await the loser of the BU-Bucknell matchup at approximately 2:30 p.m. for the other spot in the championship round.