It wasn’t exactly clear who was going to win the matchup between Boston College and Pittsburgh until the very end.
And it didn’t end exactly how the Eagles would have liked.
Going into the extra eighth inning with the score stuck at 2–2, both the Eagles and the Panthers were itching for a run. And once Pittsburgh’s Tieley Vaughn drew a walk on Bailey Kendziorski, it was over for the Eagles.
The following hit from Ana Hernandez brought Vaughn home, scoring the first of four runs that led to the Eagles’ 6–2 demise.
After the matchup got rained out on Saturday, BC(15–15–0, 3–9 Atlantic Coast) faced off against Pittsburgh (12–20–0, 2–10) in a conference matchup at Harrington Athletics Village.
Pittsburgh opened up the first inning with Camryn Murphy hitting a single up the middle to get Ahmari Braden home.
The Eagles were less successful than the Panthers, though during their chance at bat.
When it was BC’s chance to hit, Gator Robinson, Addison Jackson, and Zoe Hines walked. But, despite loading the bases, they failed to score any runs—keeping the Panthers’ 1–0 lead.
When the Panthers came back to bat, Kendziorski took out three consecutive hitters. But they again failed to use their time at bat to get onto the scoreboard.
That is until the third inning when Jordan Stephens hit a home run, her sixth of the season, bringing the Eagles into the game and forcing Pittsburgh to change pitchers from Bekah Duck to Kyra Pittman.
Pittman kept the game tied 1–1 until the fourth inning, when the Panthers came back to bat and regained the lead with a single from Hernandez, bringing Vauhgn home.
BC tied the game in the fifth inning after a bases-loaded walk for Adriana Martinez brought Hannah Slike home.
But the next two innings proved less exciting, as neither team managed to score a run.
BC also saw their own pitching change, bringing in Kelly Colleran for the extra eighth inning.
Prior to extra innings, the Eagles did a decent job of shutting down the Panthers’ dominant players.
But during the eighth frame, Pittsburgh was effective in using those key players to control the game. This started with the walk from Vaughn bringing Griggs home, setting off a huge run for the Panthers.
Next at bat, Desirae Martinez doubled down the line, advancing Vaughn to third and bringing Alena Ball home.
The Panthers followed this with a hit from Hernandez, which brought Martinez and Vaughn home and the score up to 6–2 for Pittsburgh.
When BC came up to bat, morale was visibly low. Meghan Schouten’s foul out and Sammy Horn’s strikeout were the final straws to bring the game to a close.
Hernandez, Vaughn, and Martinez had struggled in the matchup on Friday as well. Despite eking out a win with four runs in the seventh in that game, their inability to shut down the Panthers cost the Eagles.
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