The story of Boston College softball’s season remains the same. Dominant pitching is how they win games.
Locked in a scoreless battle in the second inning, BC pitcher Abby Dunning was on pitch nine of an at-bat against Hannah Davis with two outs and a runner in scoring position. Dunning stepped forward and fired a pitch low and away, getting Davis to bite and strikeout, averting the danger and putting momentum back in the Eagle’s favor.
“Pitching has been strong all season long,” BC head coach Amy Kvilhaug said. “The great news is that we’ve been consistent with great pitching and I think our pitchers just continue to rise to the level.”
The Eagles (17–8, 1–2 Atlantic Coast) rode pitching and an offensive explosion in the third inning to cruise past Quinnipiac University (9–6) at home on Sunday afternoon.
The first runs in the game came in the third inning when Hannah Slike hit a double deep into center field followed by Addison Jackson launching a home run over the centerfield wall, giving the Eagles the 3–0 lead.
“I’m psyched for everyone who hit the ball hard today,” Kvilhaug said. “Hannah, Nicole, Jordan. Jules has some RBIs, like everyone contributed.”
The Eagles added to their lead when Jordan Stephens hit a double over Ally Hochstadter’s head, driving in another run from Elisabeth Laviolette.
Gator Robinson closed out a big third inning for the Eagles, sending the ball down the third base line, allowing Stephens to score BC’s fifth run of the inning.
“We have been toward the bottom with our hitting and I know that once we start hitting and putting all the pieces together we can be a dangerous team,” Kvilhaug said.
The Bobcats tried to respond quickly in the top of the fourth when Kennedy Demott hit the ball up the middle for a single. But pinch runner Gianna Palmisano was thrown out by Slike trying to steal second.
Jaclyn Gonzalez replaced Sydney Horan on the mound for Quinnipiac in the fourth and kept BC scoreless in the inning after Nicole Giery was called out stealing second following an unsuccessful challenge.
Stephens fired a double into right-center field, putting two runners on base for the Eagles in the bottom of the fifth, but Gonzalez was able to get out of the jam and BC stranded two runners to keep Quinnipiac scoreless.
Jackson replaced Dunning on the mound at the top of the sixth and made quick work of the Bobcats, keeping the score at 5–0 and continuing BC’s dominant performance on the mound.
“No walks today,” Kvilhaug said. “That is like my favorite thing, we had the seven innings, no walks, it’s fantastic.”
Jackson closed out the game in the 7th inning, cementing a strong day on the mound for the Eagles. Dunning and Jackson combined for six strikeouts, three hits, and no walks, leading to a 5–0 win for the Eagles in their final game of the home-round robin.
“I’m really happy about the weekend,” Kvilhaug said. “One of the things we discussed was that this is our home and we wanted to set the standard for what we wanted to do when we’re at home.”
The Eagles beat Iona 9–1 earlier on Sunday in commanding fashion in five innings. Hailee Pappion went the entire game on the mound for BC, allowing one earned run and three hits while recording four strikeouts.
Nicole Giery led the way offensively for the Eagles, going 3-for-3 with a homerun, double and three RBIs off of Iona’s Alyssa DeJianne. The Gaels sole run came in the fourth inning when Kaylin Flukey batted home Kayla Haywood.
BC beat Iona College 3–0 on Saturday afternoon, with Abby Dunning picking up her seventh win of the season. The Eagles runs came in the first and second inning, but BC was held scoreless the rest of the game.
“I’m just happy,” Kvilhaug said. “You know maybe this was just the gasoline that we needed to light the match to get the whole thing going.”
