The University of Massachusetts Boston Beacons softball team is having somewhat of a down year after a 30-13 Little East Conference (LEC) winning season last year. With that said, there’s still time for them to turn things around. They are currently sitting at 10-18 overall and 2-4 in the LEC. Although they have a lot of work to do in order to improve their record, there are some positive things to look at.
The Beacons are 6-4 at home while they’re 4-14 on the road and at neutral sites. Of their 12 remaining games, they will have six of them at home. If they can take care of their home games, they will have a shot at making a run here down the stretch. Two thirds of the remaining games are within the conference: two against University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, two against Western Connecticut State University, two against Keene State College, and two against Rhode Island College. These have huge postseason implications attached to them, as UMass Boston stands right in the middle of the LEC. 
The Beacons’ ace pitcher, Jess Greenspan, sophomore, has been on her A-game this year as she’s posted an impressive earned run average of 2.95 thus far. Along with that, she has struck out 49 batters on the season, which is more than half of the total team strikeouts. Of the 13 games she has started, she’s gone the distance in 12 of them. She has two complete game shutouts on the year as well, both of them huge wins.
On April 12, the Beacons had undoubtedly their most meaningful win of the season against Lesley University. Through the first three innings of play, it was a pitcher’s duel as neither team could get on the board no matter what they tried. Finally, Lesley struck first with a run in the fourth inning, which still appeared to be very attainable for UMass Boston. After not scoring in the home half of the inning, the Beacons then let things get a bit out of hand as they allowed Lesley to add three insurance runs in the fifth inningand even one more in the sixth. Of course, in softball the game goes final after six innings of play, so with the score 5-0, the Beacons were in dire need of some late-game heroics if they wanted any shot of making a comeback.
Junior Alyssa Tulley got things started as she drew a leadoff walk, eventually scoring following freshman Tori Dicenso’s wall ball double. That was when Lesley started to implode, eventually reaching a point where the bases were loaded with no outs, but still a 5-1 run lead. That deficit would be erased quickly, as four of the next five batters got a free trip to first base due to walks. That 5-5 tie sent the game to extras, eventually going all the way to the ninth. Tulley, who was also the first Beacon to cross the plate in the game, won this game with a line drive off of the third baseman’s glove which brought home junior Roxanne Veto. A comeback win in a walk-off fashion is exactly the type of spark UMass Boston was looking for and was maybe something that they could build off of this as the season comes to an end.