Softball Swept At The Hands Of No. 22 FSU

The Boston College softball team dropped all three games of its weekend series at No. 22 Florida State and saw its losing streak stretched out to six games. The Eagles lost 5-0 on Sunday afternoon after dropping both games of Saturday’s doubleheader, 12-4 and 2-0, to drop to 20-22 on the season and just 2-13 in ACC play. Head coach Ashley Obrest spoke of her team’s play over the weekend, saying that while there were some positives to take out, the overall execution was lacking.

“It was a disappointing weekend,” Obrest said. “We couldn’t seem to get firing on all cylinders. Some games we had the hitting but didn’t have the fielding, other games we had the pitching, but we couldn’t put it all together. It was a little disappointing but there are some bright spots here and there.”

The Eagles were shut out 5-0 on Sunday as the series wrapped up. Florida State scored two runs early and BC was unable to solve Seminole pitcher Lacey Waldrop, who threw two complete game shutouts in the series while allowing just six total hits. BC only managed to score four runs in the series and only put up 11 hits in the three games. And while Obrest noticed the great pitching from Florida State, she admitted some concern with those numbers.

“It’s definitely not something you like to see,” Obrest said. “We faced good pitchers and they got a lot of ground balls. We started to get going a little bit in the later innings of the third game, but we need to do a better job of swinging at the right pitches and looking for the right [pitches]. There’s a good chance we’ll play them again in the [ACC] tournament, and we’ll be ready for them then.”

The middle game of the series once again saw Waldrop shut the Eagles down on offense. BC’s starting pitcher, Morgan Kidd, threw well for her team, but Florida State managed to score once in the fifth and again in the sixth to take the game 6-0.

The first game featured much more offense from both sides. The Eagles jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead before Florida State scored five unanswered runs. BC managed to cut the score to 5-4 in the fourth, but a seven-run outburst by the Seminoles in the fifth ended the game by a score of 12-4. Again, however, Obrest tried to remain upbeat, saying that she did see some good things out of her team this series.

“We’re trying to take positives out of every game,” Obrest said. “For learning along the way, we’re kind of letting them make the mistakes and then spend time talking about them. We just need to go out and keep getting better every day. We’ve got some big midweek games, and then we’ve got a big series with Maryland [next weekend].”

The sweep brings the Eagles’ losing streak to a season-high six games. The three losses also knocked BC’s record under .500 for the first time this season and pushed them further into the cellar of the ACC. But Obrest does not want her team to panic or change the way they are approaching the game.

“No one’s really pressing, I just think we’re all a little frustrated,” Obrest said. “Everyone knows how to swing the bat and catch a ground ball. Our pitchers know how to throw the ball, so we just have to keep that confidence up. I think it’s just a matter of stringing together a couple hits and getting some solid innings from our pitchers and getting solid defense behind our pitcher. I think the confidence will just grow from there.”

The Eagles will return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Dartmouth for a doubleheader. They will host BU on Thursday before they welcome Maryland for a three-game series this weekend.