10 up and 10 down for UMass Boston’s top-ranked LEC softball team. The Beacons, who earned the lead over Eastern Connecticut in the Little East with a pre-season poll, haven’t dropped the ball once.
Through their 10 wins, they’ve pitched seven shutout games, and tallied double digits thrice — including a 22-3 pounding of the University of Maine, Presque Isle, the most runs scored in a game for the Beacons in 14 years.
All 10 games played came down on the coast in Myrtle Beach during the Beacons’ spring break trip after their home-opening double header was postponed a few weeks ago. It was as successful a trip to South Carolina as they could have hoped for, coming back to Boston undefeated.
The Beacons this 10-day-old season have five players hitting above .400 with a minimum of 10 at bats, and all but two eligible hitters are higher than .300. Stymied to a single home run this season, UMass Boston has peppered the bases leading to some rather stunning statistics:
This is UMass Boston’s first time winning 10 consecutive games to begin a season, dating back to the softball program’s first season in 1981.
The Beacons have a perfect rate on stolen base attempts, taking all 49 bags.
UMass Boston’s pitching staff has struck out 74 hitters. That’s just about three times as many strikeouts as the Beacons’ own bats.
Propelled by runs, but anchored by their pitching. UMass Boston has a pair graduate student aces including the 2024 LEC Pitcher of the year. The two Beacons pitchers, who’ve totaled a combined 40 innings pitched on the year, hold a flat goose egg of an ERA. Bri Melchionda and Jacqueline Cherry are both 3-0 and have gone the distance in each.
Melchionda, the Little East’s reigning best pitcher, is holding hitters to .116 against her. Just eight hits and two walks off her in 21 innings. She’s in her fifth season with UMass Boston, and is making an early run for it to be her best.
Cherry is in her second season with the Beacons after an All-LEC second team selection a year ago. She’s already struck out 30 hitters, which is more than double the amount from her 2024 campaign.
Leading the lineup, from one lens, has been Amauri English. Hitting .478 so far along with a team high 13 RBIs, her volume will likely see an increase after a 2024 season of sub 100 at bats.
English’s on base percentage is .519, a standout number that would get lost looking through their statsheet. Not only is it not their highest, but what really stands out is the team’s total OBP. As a unit, the Beacons get on at a rate of .420—their opponents on base percentage has been held to .227.
UMass Boston’s now second scheduled home opener is set for Wed. March 26, against Emmanuel College. They’ll get a doubleheader with the Saints and then, finally, face their first in-conference opponent, UMass Dartmouth on March 29.
Emmanuel is another struggling squad, at 2-12 this year. UMass Boston will benefit from seeing an uptick in competition coming up from the Little East. The Beacons, despite their blistering start, have yet to receive a vote in the latest Division III Softball Coaches Poll.
A real runway has been set for UMass Boston, and they look to get back on top of the Little East for the first time since 2018 as champions.
