For much of Boston College softball’s matchup against No. 25 Virginia, it seemed as if an upset was in the works in Charlottesville, VA.
Until, it didn’t.
It took seven innings for the Cavaliers to narrowly escape BC 3–1, marking the Eagles fourth-straight loss coming off an 0–3 performance against Cal last weekend.
“We fell short,” BC head coach Amy Kvilhaug said. “We didn’t execute, and we had a couple of opportunities throughout that game to execute and put more than one run on the board. I think that the story of the game was just lack of execution with runners in scoring position.”
The game started out rather slow—for both teams. It wasn’t until the fourth inning where the first run was put on the board.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Virginia ultimately landed the first punch.
And it was Sydney Hartgrove who ignited the Cavaliers’ offense by firing a home run to right field off a Kelly Colleran pitch.
UVA’s lead didn’t last for too long, though, as the Eagles knotted the score in the top of the fifth inning.
“It was a pretty good pitcher’s duel going,” Kvilhaug said. “We were matching zeros with them and then they made an interesting pitching change, and we jumped on them right away, which was exciting. We punched back after they punched. They punched with a homerun, and we punched back after with a homerun of our own.”
And it was Janis Espinoza that made the punch for BC. Scoring BC’s first and only run of the matchup, Espinoza smashed a home run to left field.
This seemed exactly what the Eagles needed to end their three-game losing streak. Something seemed to be changing in BC’s offense.
Virginia didn’t respond with any more runs or hits in the bottom of the fifth inning, and it appeared that the game was only beginning to heat up.
In need of a run to take the lead in the top of the sixth inning, the Eagles needed to make something happen. They needed to execute. But that never happened.
The Cavaliers added another two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning off a huge Macee Eaton 2 RBI homer. Virginia never looked back from that point on.
When tasked with putting something together offensively in the top of the seventh inning, the Eagles crashed and burned. Kali Case, Gator Robinson, Hannah Slike, Sammy Horn and Emma Jackson were all unable to convert any hits into BC runs.
Despite the loss, Kvilhaug mentioned Colleran’s performance on the mound.
“Kelly came in and did a really nice job,” Kvilhaug said. “We scouted UVA’s offense hard, and Kelly understood what needed to happen. I think she did a pretty solid job with an offense that is hitting .320.”
But even Colleran’s attempted heroics weren’t enough to solidify an Eagles’ upset over nationally-ranked Virginia.
“I think we need all three parts of our game to work together,” Kvilhaug said. “We really need to trust in our plans up at the plate and execute when it’s called upon to execute. We’ve got to get gritty and we’ve got to execute. Whatever the time calls for, we’ve got to step up to the plate so to speak.”
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