The Massachusetts softball team lost 6-0 to Boston University, a team that has now won its past 16 games. The Minutewomen struggled to get the bats going Wednesday afternoon, getting just one hit against the Terriers pitchers.
The damage began early for UMass (12-23, 5-6 Atlantic 10), giving up four runs in the bottom of the first inning, all of them unearned. BU (27-13, 6-0 Patriot League) capitalized on an early error by left fielder Giana Wameling, and never looked back.
“We had great defense the other day, and we just made a few mistakes [Wednesday],” Minutewomen head coach Danielle Henderson said. “That’s where all those unearned runs [came] from.”
UMass picked up its defense after the first inning, not committing another error for the rest of the game. Pitcher Jessie DiPasquale also improved after the first inning, allowing five hits over her final five innings after allowing four hits in the first.
Coming into this game, DiPasquale had an ERA of 4.53 on the season. Her ERA of 4.40 after the game shows her steady improvement from three weeks ago when it hovered around 5.20. Walks have been a prevalent problem for the entire Minutewomen pitching staff, but this is another area that has been consistently improving since the beginning of the season. DiPasquale allowed one walk in Wednesday’s contest, after previously allowing four in her last time out.
“Jessie [DiPasquale] pitched a good game in the circle, [she] kept them off balance,” Henderson said.
The UMass offense was a completely different story, getting one hit over seven innings. Consistent offense is a problem for the Minutewomen, who average 3.3 runs per game in their last series but scoring zero in their contest last Wednesday against the University of Connecticut.
The contact that UMass made was weak contact and it failed to barrel the ball. The balls’ hit into play were shallow fly-outs to the outfielders, or routine plays to the infielders, resulting in easy outs.
“It could have been a lot better,” Henderson said. “I thought that we could have put a lot more pressure on [BU’s] defense, we just have to go up swinging and put the ball in play a little bit more.”
Similar to their performance last Wednesday, the Minutewomen struck out 10 times. In its most recent weekend series, UMass struck out a total of nine times over three games. This speaks to the dominance of BU’s starting pitcher, Lizzy Avery. She came into the game with a 2.52 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP, which was on display on Wednesday, she allowed a total of three baserunners over seven innings.
UMass is back in action this weekend in a three-game series against conference opponent St. Bonaventure, which is scheduled to take place from Sortino field in Amherst. First pitch is scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m.
Johnny Depin can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @jdepin101.
