The Massachusetts softball team will look to end its early season struggles when it returns to Amherst for its home-opener against Boston College Wednesday.
The Minutewomen (3-16, 1-1 Atlantic 10) began to take a step forward after a weekend two-game split in their A-10 opening series against Dayton.
UMass gained confidence after the victory and is excited to be back home.
“Being home is something that is a big confidence booster for them,” associate coach Kristi Stefanoni said. “They know their field and are comfortable with it.”
In UMass’ 9-4 loss to Dayton in the first game of the series on Friday, the Minutewomen left 11 runners on base and were over powered by the Flyers’ offense. However, Saturday went better for UMass as it got its first conference win of the year in a 14-12 win.
“We were all, I don’t even know if happy is the word to win that game, we were ecstatic,” Stefanoni said.
Stefanoni also emphasized that the win was beneficial for the Minutewomen as they were able to “to come and fight before (they) got into a home game.”
Prior to Saturday, UMass had lost 11 straight games, with its last win coming against Southern Illinois on Feb. 23 at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Fla.
Cyndil Matthew has powered the Minutewomen offense so far this year and is leading the team in batting. She also leads UMass with 11 stolen bases this season.
The Eagles (8-14, 0-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) are coming off of a 4-3 extra innings win against Bryant on Tuesday.
“We have great competition against Boston College and that is always a huge rival for us every year, home and away,” Stefanoni said.
In the batter’s box, BC is currently led by junior outfielder Tory Speer. She is batting .415 and has hit nine home runs this season, two of which were walk-offs in a doubleheader in the USF Clearwater Invitational against Radford and LIU-Brooklyn. Speer also leads the Eagles in slugging percentage, on base percentage, hits, and runs batted in.
BC utilizes a three-person rotation, which includes Andrea Filler, Stephanie Lord, and Chelsea Dimon.
Filler (2-8) has pitched 49.2 innings and has 18 strikeouts. Dimon leads the team with six wins.
The Eagles have been plagued by errors recently, which is something that UMass can look to use to its advantage.
Heading into the game, Stefanoni also made a point that everyone “is going to want to go out and show they can do it.”
She added that an array of emotions will certainly run through the players but “being home is always an advantage.”
The Minutewomen have won its last 15 match ups with BC and is 44-4 against the Eagles all-time. UMass will look to continue this streak at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Sortino Field.
Kaitlin Boyer can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kaitlin_Boyer.
