Meghan Schouten trotted to the batter’s box with two runners on base, Boston College softball losing by three runs, and her team down to its final three outs.
The Eagles’ offense struggled to pick up momentum in the second game of their doubleheader against Pittsburgh on Friday, as the Panthers had an answer to every run BC had to offer.
But Schouten changed that narrative very quickly.
A sailing, yellow sphere was all the Panthers’ left fielder saw as Schouten drove a three-run homer to tie the game up 5–5 in the bottom of the seventh.
Not soon after, Emma Jackson’s walk-off single gave the Eagles (15–14, 3–8 Atlantic Coast) a 6–5 win over Pitt (11–20, 1–10) for their second walk-off win of the day.
“Energy can be contagious,” BC head coach Amy Kvilhaug said. “They haven’t stopped hooting and hollering since the game ended. So I think the energy was great.”
Kelly Colleran took the mound as the starter and was able to keep the Panthers tamed to start the game. But an RBI single in the second inning and another in the third inning pushed Pitt to an early 2–0 lead.
The Eagles’ offense only put two runners on base in those first three innings, and the Panthers eventually took advantage of that.
Pitt’s Kylie Griggs cranked a two-RBI homer to left field to double her team’s lead to 4–0 in the top of the fourth, forcing BC to get the ball rolling to keep the game tight.
But Colleran kept the slate clean the remainder of the game, only allowing one more run in the final inning. The sophomore pitcher pitched all seven innings and compiled eight strikeouts.
“I think the maturity of—that’s how they’ve gotten better—is the maturity of understanding what they need to do to adjust,” Kvilhaug said about Colleran’s and freshman pitcher Bailey Kendziorski’s performances on the mound through both games.
BC got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Jackson reached first on a walk, Zoe Hines’ single pushed her to second, and Adriana Martinez’s single right after drove Jackson past home plate.
After back-to-back 1-2-3 innings from Colleran in the fifth and sixth, the Eagles tacked on another run with Jordan Stephens’ sacrifice fly, which brought Jackson home once again.
Now with just a 4–2 lead, Pitt needed to add some insurance. A double-play attempt from BC was too slow to end the top of the seventh, as Pittsburgh’s Ana Hernandez beat the throw and earned herself an RBI.
Two straight singles from Martinez and Makenna Segal began the seventh-inning rally for the Eagles, though, and Schouten delivered the moment of the game with her game-tying home run.
After two consecutive outs, Hannah Slike found the right-center alley for a triple, then Jackson’s single up the middle capped off a comeback win for BC.
“We won a lot of games in that fashion this season,” Kvilhaug said. “I think that they believe they can win no matter what. Like this team wins with their back against the wall.”
The first game of the doubleheader followed a similar theme: solid pitching from both sides, BC falling to an early deficit, and a walk-off win.
This time, it would be Stephens who answered the call with a single to left field that put the Eagles back at .500 on the season with a 4–3 win over the Panthers.
The only hit in the first two innings was a double from Pitt’s Kaitlyn Brannstrom that flew over the head of center fielder Kali Case’s head.
Kendziorski pitched her third straight complete game, putting together eight strikeouts, three earned runs, and no walks.
A leadoff single from Desirae Martinez began a two-run third inning for Pitt.
After advancing to second on a groundout, a two-out bunt put runners on the corners for Brannstrom. She stayed hot, as her single to left brought Martinez home, and Tieley Vaughn’s double scored another run for the Panthers shortly after.
BC cut that lead in half after Case complemented Schouten’s double in the bottom of the inning with a triple of her own to bring Schouten all the way home. Slike lined one towards right field, but a diving catch saved the game-tying run at third.
Kendziorski allowed her final run of the game in the fifth inning when Ahmari Braden knocked a double to left field, and Vaughn singled her home to extend Pitt’s lead to 3–1.
Two singles in the fifth inning from Schouten and Abby Ptak set Slike up for business—and business it was for her.
A clutch double in the left-center gap brought both runners home and tied the game up at 3–3 with two innings remaining.
Neither team had an answer in the sixth inning. Adriana Martinez began the bottom of the frame with a single, but was thrown out at second attempting to stretch out a double.
But after Kendziorski topped off her complete-game performance, Stephens stepped to the plate with two outs. Case had reached first after being hit by a pitch, and Slike’s single put her in scoring position.
Stephens then produced the game-winning hit with a single through the left side that handed the Eagles a 4–3 win.
BC had lost nine of its last 10 games before rattling off four straight wins, including the doubleheader sweep on Friday afternoon.
“Honestly, like, sometimes it takes getting punched in the gut to get a gut check, you know, and I think that’s what we did,” Kvilhaug said. “We had a gut check, and we discussed several ways that we wanted to clean things up, both physically and mentally.”
The Eagles’ first win of the week came on Tuesday, when a 6–1 win over Stonehill at home handed the Eagles back-to-back victories.
BC gave up its only run of the game in the second inning, when a homer off Colleran’s pitch handed Stonehill the first lead of the afternoon.
But after that point, it was all BC.
Home runs from Schouten and Jackson in the fifth and sixth innings were the strong points from the Eagles, as Jackson’s put BC up 4–1. Then, Schouten’s two-RBI double to right center handed the Eagles two more runs before the sixth was over.
Gabriella Aughton held strong on the mound in the seventh to start BC’s week off with a win.
