Despite dropping all three games in the series against Cal, the box score reads a little differently than Boston College softball’s actual performance seemed this weekend. Even though the Eagles ended the series 0–3, it wasn’t a complete blowout.
“Coming into this series, it was exactly what we thought,” BC head coach Amy Kvilhaug said. “We thought that Cal was an elite hitting team with an average, at best, defense and average pitching. We were really going to need to have good pitching outings, play good defense behind our pitchers, and we were going to have to score runs.”
And, to some extent, the Eagles did just that—in moderation.
In Sunday’s final matchup against their newly-joined ACC opponents, the Eagles put the first run on the board in the top of the third inning.
After a Janis Espinoza walk followed by one out, Gator Robinson singled to shortstop, advancing Espinoza to second on the play. Just one play later, off a Hannah Slike single, Robinson advanced to second, scoring Espinoza and bringing the score to 1–0 BC.
In the bottom of the third, though, Cal responded almost immediately. It took a hit, a sacrifice bunt, and another hit—all in a row and with no outs—for the Golden Bears to knot the score.
The Eagles’ offensive success did not falter in the top of the fourth. A Makenna Segal home run to left field brought BC its first run of the inning.
After being hit by a pitch to get to first, Espinoza stole second. It didn’t take long though for her teammate to follow suit. Kali Case singled a rocket and advanced to second on the throw, scoring Espinoza.
It seemed like the Eagles were starting to figure things out, holding a 3–1 lead over Cal. While Cal was able to put up one more run on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning on a leadoff home run, the Eagles still maintained a one-run lead over the Golden Bears heading into the fifth.
The next inning was less promising for BC as the Golden Bears held the Eagles to a 1–2–3 inning.
Eventually, the Bears caught up, and even surpassed, the Eagles in the bottom of the fifth. BC’s previous lead had vanished, and Cal never looked back.
After allowing a Cal walk and two consecutive singles, after one of which Acacia Anders advanced to second on the throw, the Golden Bears managed to put two more runs on the board, stealing the lead from the Eagles. The scoreboard now read 4–3, and neither team scored any more runs in the sixth or seventh innings.
Even with the fifth inning lull, Kvilhaug praised her pitcher, Kelly Colleran.
“Today, I thought it was a game where Kelly pitched really really well,” Kvilhaug said. “I think she had a situation where she had a couple mistakes that cost her, but otherwise she pitched really well, and our offense needs to absorb that. If they score four, we need to score five.”
Colleran only allowed one Golden Bear walk.
“I thought Kelly made some key pitches, as she got them to pop up quite a bit and those in my opinion, other than strike-outs, are the best kinds of outs, as all you have to do is catch the ball,” Kvilhaug said. “She walked one, which is really good.”
The other two games in the series went much less smoothly for the Eagles, though.
In Saturday’s matchup, Cal’s offense ignited early with four runs in the bottom of the first inning off of three hits, compared to zero BC hits or runs in the top of the first.
While BC was able to knot the score in the top of the second and top of the third, with one run and three runs, respectively, the Eagles’ defense was ultimately unable to stop the bleeding in the fourth inning.
Off of just three hits, the Golden Bears scored seven runs on six walks.
“We just need to work on being more productive with different people in the line-up when necessary to minimize mistakes,” Kvilhaug said. “We were right in two of these three ball games, and we were right in the ballgame yesterday until it got out of hand in the last inning with seven runs… we walked 10 and gave up 10 free passes, which was the story of the game, as seven of them scored. We just didn’t give our defense a chance to defend.”
Friday’s matchup may have been even more lackluster of a performance for BC, as it never held a lead after the first half inning.
From the first runs that Cal scored in the first inning, the Eagles were attempting to play a failed game of catch-up, as it took seven innings for BC to score three runs. While they only lost by two runs, the Golden Bears controlled the matchup in every aspect.
“I think game one, we weren’t able to punch more than they did,” Kvilhaug said.
Despite her team’s record in the series, Kvilhaug is not fazed.
“We have 24 games in the ACC, three down and 21 to go,” Kvilhaug said. “I think our preparation has got to be about winning series, but winning a series is doing things one step at a time.”
Leave a Reply