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Besides playing five games in six days, the University of Maine softball team was looking to continue their five-game winning streak.
That wasn’t to be, though, as Boston University snapped the streak with a 2-1 win in the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader in Boston.
The Terriers got two runs in the fifth, and while the Black Bears rallied with one in the top of the ninth, they couldn’t get the tying run to force extra innings.
Sarah Bennis won her 14th decision of the year in the nightcap, as UMaine bounced back with a 4-2 victory.
The Black Bears play Boston College this afternoon, then head to Albany for a three-game set with the perennial America East conference champs.
“We’re just ready for the games that we have to play and if we keep playing the way we are playing, we will do fine,” said senior Molly McKinney. “Our pitchers are doing phenomenally and they are more consistent than our pitchers when we went to regionals.”
UMaine, which is 24-13 with a 6-2 America East record, played a two-game set against the Terriers on Wednesday and on Thursday will travel 3.8 miles down Commonwealth Avenue to play Boston College.
BU is in third place behind the Black Bears with a 5-3 record in conference play. The Terriers have won six of their last 10 games, including two against the Catamounts. In their most recent series against Hartford, BU took two out of three games from the Hawks.
Part of BU’s success was credited to Liz Alley, who was one of four players to be named the conference player of the week as she hit .462 with three home runs and had a slugging percentage of 1.385.
The Black Bears’ game against the Eagles will be one of three non-conference games UMaine will be playing until the end of the season. UMaine’s other games will be against Colby at Kessock Field next Tuesday and against the University of Massachusetts in the first week of May.
“This is by far our biggest road trip of the season, since we are going against the two teams who were picked to finish at the top of our conference,” said coach Stacey Sullivan. “Throughout the whole year, we’ve felt that we were one of the strongest teams in the conference and I think this week we have the opportunity to prove that.”
Once the Black Bears leave the Bay State, they will travel west to take on Albany, who lead UMaine by one game atop the conference standings.
Albany has won 12 of their last 15 games and in seven of those games they have scored more than eight runs including a 12-2 bashing of Lehigh University in five innings.
The Great Danes’ last game came against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County when they took the series against the Golden Retrievers.
On Monday, Sarah Bennis was named the America East Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season. She won both of her starts in the sweep against Vermont while allowing just two runs and striking out 23 batters.
This is the third time that the Black Bears have had a player win the award; freshman Jenna Balent won the award last week.
“We have just worked really hard all offseason when it comes to improving our pitches and we have just complemented each other well,” said Balent, who red-shirted last season. “If I am having a rough day, she is there to pick me up and if she is having a rough day, I will pick her up too.”
Bangor Daily News