While Boston College students were wrapped up in their North Face or Canada Goose jackets, trying to avoid slipping on the sheet of black ice also known as the Mod Lot, the softball team was enjoying a relatively balmy 60-degree weekend down in sunny Conway, S.C.
This wasn’t an early Spring Break trip, however—the Eagles were all business, winning each of the four games they played in the Chanticleer Showdown.
The Eagles improved their record to an impressive 11-3, defeating Sacred Heart on Friday, Bucknell and Murray State on Saturday, and host Coastal Carolina on Sunday. Pitcher Allyson Frei was the unquestionable star of the weekend for the Eagles, winning three of the four games on the weekend, notching 28 strikeouts (including 10 in a single game twice), and improving her record on the year to 9-2.
On Friday, staunch pitching and some power hitting propelled the Eagles to a 4-1 victory over Sacred Heart. Frei pitched a complete game, allowing just four hits and one run, striking out seven in the process.
Meanwhile, second baseman Chloe Sharabba went 2-3 with an RBI double in the fourth to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead, while catcher Tatiana Cortez smacked a home run in the sixth inning to put the Eagles up 3-1 on the Pioneers. BC would tack on another run on an RBI groundout by Jordan Weed, providing the final margin.
On Saturday, however, it was BC’s bats that did the heavy lifting. The Eagles pounded Bucknell 8-1, and then out-hit Murray State to a final score of 9-6. Weed pitched a gem in the early game, going six innings, giving up one run on eight hits, and striking out eight. Center fielder Megan Cooley set the tone early, hitting a leadoff homer, the first of her career, before Sharabba took over. Sharabba made sure that Weed’s effort didn’t go in vain, as she went 2-4 with four RBIs, including a three-run home run.
The second game was the first in which BC had to outmuscle the opposing team, as the Racers of Murray State refused to go down easy.
In particular, one Racer gave Frei a massive headache each time she stepped up to the plate. Shortstop Alexa Becker went 4-for-4 and drove in all six Murray State runs. The rest of the Murray State lineup combined for four hits and no RBIs.
BC jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first two innings thanks to a two-run Taylor Coroneos single in the first, and a two-run double by Annie Murphy in the second.
Becker halved that lead with one swing in the third, with a massive home run. The Eagles extended their lead once again, with Cortez driving in two more runs for an 8-3 lead. Becker refused to let BC get away, however, knocking a booming double down the right field line driving in two more.
Becker came up in the top of the seventh inning with two outs and almost no chance that her team would make up its four-run deficit. Despite this, she once again put a scare into the Eagles, smashing her second home run of the night. However, the scare was only brief, and she couldn’t do it all herself as the Eagles remained victorious.
It was easily Frei’s worst performance of the weekend, as she let up all six runs to the Racers. Frei still managed to strike out 10, as Becker was the only one that could touch her.
Whatever Frei changed from Saturday night to Sunday worked, because she was nigh untouchable to the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. Frei again struck out 10, but this time didn’t allow a single Chanticleer to cross home plate as the Eagles held on for a taut 1-0 win.
On the offensive side, the production came from an unlikely place, as third baseman Jordan Chimento, who had gone 0-for-7 in the first three games, drove in the Eagles’ only run against the Chanticleers.
As the team returns to the hellscape that is Boston, students can hope they’re bringing the weather with them, however unlikely that may be.
What may be more likely is that the Eagles continue the blazing hot streak that carried them to an undefeated weekend in Conway.
