The Massachusetts softball team won both of its games on Wednesday afternoon against the Maine Black Bears. The Minutewomen (10-17, 3-2 Atlantic 10) are coming off a weekend where they lost two of three to Saint Louis. The Black Bears (4-23) lost their two previous contests heading into today’s doubleheader.
Pitching was the story of the second game for the Minutewomen, with freshman pitcher Julianne Bolton taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning before a homerun broke up both the no-hitter and the shutout. She finished with six one-hit innings.
“My goal was to go out there [on Wednesday] and get ahead of batters,” Bolton said. “[I] wanted to minimize my walks, and I think it showed in the hits.”
UMass jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first, a lead that it would never give up. Two more runs would come across to score in the contest, both driven in by first basemen Kendra Allen.
“I just knew the pitcher was going in and out,” Allen said. “I was just strategizing at the plate, picking out a pitch I like, and just taking it wherever it needed to go.”
The top of the seventh proved to be stressful for UMass, as the Black Bears led off the inning with a stand-up double. A momentum killing double play all but sealed it for the Minutewomen, who won the second game by a score of 4-2.
The first game of the day was much less dominant by the Minutewomen. They again opened an early lead on the Black Bears with Emily Whelan driving in two in the bottom of the second. UMass would add two more before it began to face trouble in the later innings.
Four runs would be plated in the top of the fifth off the back of two homeruns from Maine, knotting the game at four. The Minutewomen would answer immediately, scoring two in the bottom half of the inning, and eventually winning 7-4. Sophomore pitcher Jessie DiPasquale went the distance, allowing one earned run over seven innings pitched.
“All of the pitchers have been working on hitting their corners,” head coach Danielle Henderson said. “Just using their legs so they can get it to stay a strike as long as they can.”
UMass took advantage of every opportunity that it had, with six of the 11 runs that it scored being unearned by the opposing pitcher. The Minutewomen were successful with runners on base, with 13 runners being left on base over the two games.
“They just look like they’re having good at-bats, I like their decision making,” Henderson said. “They’re able to make those decisions early, and they are able to come up with those clutch hits.”
UMass’ offense was a stark improvement from its last game in Saint Louis, where it had one hit in a 2-1 loss. Over this doubleheader, the Minutewomen had 10 and five hits in each game, respectively.
“We’re feeling great,” Allen said. “Today was a great team win, we had a lot of energy, and we’re going to bring that into the weekend.”
The Minutewomen will have their next game on Saturday, facing Fordham University in the beginning of a three game weekend series. First pitch for Saturday is scheduled for 12 p.m. from Sortino field.
Johnny Depin can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @jdepin10.
