After four straight home games postponed, UMass Boston softball finally took the field on their newly renovated and improved UMB Softball Field. The Beacons beat Bridgewater State University in both games of a doubleheader April 16, starting out 2-0 on home field until they dropped their next two against Eastern Connecticut State April 18.
UMass Boston outscored Bridgewater State by a total of 9-2 during their doubleheader, including a shutout gem from Izzy Levasseur who went the full distance of 7.0 innings. It’s Levasseur’s second straight seven inning complete game and third of the season, as well as her career; in each of the three she’s held opponents scoreless. The sophomore is holding onto a 2.63 ERA through just over 40.0 innings pitched, already winning as many starts as she did during her freshman campaign — which was four.
Levasseur is just one arm in the rotation of UMass Boston’s deadly staff. Each of the Beacons’ three starters appear in the top 10 of the Little East Conference’s ERA list. Atop of that list, is Lauryn Meade with an impressive ERA of 1.43. Opponents are hitting .201 on the season against Meade, the lowest average in the LEC, while UMass Boston’s Levasseur and Lexus McIntosh sit inside the top 10 on that list as well.
The Beacons’ starting pitching has been excellent, making for the lowest team ERA in the Little East at 2.38.
On the other side of the diamond, at least recently, the bats have been cool. UMass Boston has scored just one run in three of their last four games, including during back-to-back losses to Eastern Connecticut State.
On senior day, the Beacons mustered up just two runs on six hits in their doubleheader against the Warriors, showing off some woes that have hit the Beacons throughout the year. They have good hitters, like Lauren Miner who has ripped the cover off the ball in her senior season. Miner is top ten in the conference in batting average, slugging, on base percentage, OPS, RBIs, and first in home runs with six — two more than she’s had in her career up until this year.
Fellow senior Sofie Richland has also been great through the late season; it’s been as a team that their bats have died down at times. UMass Boston, as a team, is in the middle of the pack at the plate in terms of hits, average and runs scored.
This team has a clear strength and identity, which is a good thing heading into the home stretch of the regular season. UMass Boston is going to see a majority of conference opponents from now on, as they’ve only played eight LEC games this year, going 3-5 in them. That puts the Beacons in seventh place in the conference. There is a good amount of ground to make up, but they have the games in hand to do so.
They’ll face off next at Vermont State University of Castleton April 21, and come home to host Nichols College April 23, both LEC matchups.
