Back to back double header sweeps against Emmanuel College and Rivier University, and its another week of winning for UMass Boston softball. They’ve extended their program-pioneering winning streak to 14.
The latest NCAA Division III Softball Coaches Poll rankings were released March 25 — UMass Boston wasn’t included and received zero votes. A day later, on March 26, the Beacons outscored Emmanuel College 12-4 cumulatively, taking two more wins in their long-awaited home opener.
Pitching in the matinee portion of the two-game series for the Beacons was Bri Melchionda, who had yet to let up a run yet this year. Melchionda has been dominant, and almost untouchable in her first three starts. In her fourth, against the 2-15 Saints, she scuffled. 10 hits, four runs, and a couple walks, her toughest stint came in the sixth when Emmanuel loaded the bases with nobody out after an error. Melchionda escaped with only a scratch, and eventually came back out in the seventh to finish off the one run game.
Melchionda gave up her first four runs of the season, but also knocked her first three in at the plate. Hitting sixth, the pitcher was 3/3, with three RBIs and UMass Boston’s second home run of the season. She has now gone the distance in all four of her starts — winning them all, of course — and added another 12 Ks to the stat sheet. She’s third in the LEC with 41 strikeouts so far. A big day despite the blemish on the ERA.
Izzy Levasseur started the second half of the double header, pitched two no-hit innings with two walks and left the game with the lead. Jacqueline Cherry entered in relief and threw three more no hit innings, completing a very short five inning no-hitter for the Beacons. Lauren Miner was 2/3 with a couple of stolen bases, Melchionda went 2/2, and the Beacons shut the Saints out, 7-0.
21 more runs from the Beacons lineup came the next day on Mar. 27 against Rivier University. 10-0 in the first game, in which the team’s leading hitter Lauren Miner tripled.
11-4 in five innings was the final for the second game against Rivier. Jacqueline Cherry pitched the five in full for her fourth complete game of the year, and was named as the LEC’s Pitcher of the Week.
Three weeks in, eight of nine hitters in UMass Boston’s everyday lineup are hitting above .300. Lauren Miner, Amauri English, Sofie Richland — who earned her 100th career knock against Rivier — and Bri Melchionda are among qualified batters hitting above .400.
