In the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs already secured for the University of Rhode Island, Madison Paulson stepped up to home plate and readied her stance for the pitch. She knew that she could not strike out—she could not get caught, could not get stopped, could not get out.
Though Boston College softball had a three-run lead, Paulson understood that a third out on her part could give the Rams a chance to catch up and maybe even stage a comeback in the final innings of the game. Her best option at that moment, as the pitch approached her bat, was to hit it out of the park.
And so she did. Paulson nailed the ball out to center field for her first-ever career home run. Not only did she send herself around the diamond, but brought Taylor Coroneos and Allison Chase home with her to bring the Eagles’ total to seven runs and solidify the win.
BC softball ran a marathon of its own in a post-Marathon Monday matchup against URI (2-35), defeating its opponents 7-1 to increase its record to 20-19 for this season.
The Eagles were in a deadlock with the URI Rams for six scoreless innings—it wasn’t until their own mile 21 that they picked up the pace with a full sprint to the finish, gathering their seven runs in just one inning.
URI broke the scoring stalemate between the two teams in the top of the sixth, when Marylynn Muldowney hit a single to right field that sent Megan Congro dashing for the plate. She slid into home to get the first run of the game on the board for URI, a team that hasn’t been able to hold many leads this season.
The Eagles could not respond until the bottom of the sixth. Jessie Daulton bunted and reached on an error by the third baseman. The botched throw led Annie Sommers and Megan Cooley home to give the Eagles their first lead, 2-1.
From there, BC just kept gaining momentum to run away with the game. A few plays later, the Eagles scored another two runs off of a liner from Tatiana Cortez that flew down into the right field corner. While she raced to third, Taylor Michalski and Chloe Sharabba followed her lead into home plate, stretching the score to 4-1.
Soon after, Paulson slammed her pitch over the center field fence, sending Coroneos and Chase around the bases with her for three runs to seal the Eagles’ win.
Pitcher Jessica Dreswick led the game for BC, throwing seven innings of one-run ball, with six of those innings leading to no runs at all. This lowered her season ERA to 2.92, giving her the team lead. After surpassing the .500 mark, the Eagles will look to further their win streak as they are left to face only six more competitors in the regular season before looking ahead to the ACC Championship.
Featured Image by Haley Cormier / Heights Staff
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