BU Continues to Impress at the Beach Chicken Brawl

By William Hanley

The Boston University softball team continued its dominant stretch of non-conference play to begin the 2024 season by sweeping the Beach Chicken Brawl in South Carolina.

The No. 22/23 Terriers entered the event at 13-1, still ranked among the top 25 despite a slim 4-2 loss against sixth-ranked Duke to close last week’s Duke Invitational. 

The action started on Friday, March 8, against the University of Ohio Wildcats and the George Mason University Patriots.

Down two runs early against the Wildcats, BU’s bats came alive in the bottom of the third. A pair of singles struck by graduate student infielder Catlin Coker and graduate student starting pitcher Lizzy Avery would drive in three runs. BU would go on to add two more runs to the final score, securing the 5-2 win over Ohio.

Later in the day, the Terriers would experience another third-inning offensive burst against the Patriots. Tied at one after two frames, a pair of RBI singles from Katie Pryor and Lauren Nett, along with a Brooke Deppiesse sacrifice fly out gave BU a four-run lead. Sophomore pitcher and Patriot League opposing batting average, strikeouts and wins, Kasey Ricard then recorded five shutout innings to lock up the 5-1 victory over George Mason.

BU was scheduled to face the Wildcats again on Saturday, but inclement weather canceled the contest. However, the foul climate would only briefly keep the Terriers off the diamond. That evening, they would have a rematch with the Patriots again in a low-scoring defensive showdown.

After Avery, pitching on just a day’s rest, found herself in trouble with runners on the corners and only one out in the second inning, graduate student pitcher and Patriot League earned run average leader Allison Boaz stepped into the circle and assumed control of the game, escaping from the first allowing no runs and keeping George Mason off the board the remainder of the game, enabling the Terriers to edge out the Patriots 2-0.

To close the event, BU faced the hosting Coastal Carolina University Chanticleers in a pair of matchups on Sunday afternoon and Tuesday evening.

The first game of the pair was, perhaps, BU’s most commanding victory of the season thus far. 

Ricard returned to the circle and delivered her first career perfect game and the ninth in BU program history. Her outing was abbreviated to five innings thanks to an eight-run performance from the Terriers at the plate. Three of the runs were earned by Coker, who went two-for-three with a home run on the day, helping BU blowout CCU 8-0, the team’s fourth mercy rule victory of the season.

The Terriers’ bats remained hot against CCU during the event finale, with BU again scoring eight runs in the first four innings. However, a five-run fourth inning that saw Chanticleers hit three straight homers put them right back in contention. While CCU would bring the game within two with an unearned run in the seventh, Boaz had an excellent relief appearance, allowing only two hits, propelling the Terriers to an 8-6 win, bringing their record to 18-1.

BU will travel to South Carolina again this week to compete against Power 5 programs at the Garnet & Black Invitational, the team’s final event before in-conference play begins on March 19th.

First pitch for Thursday evening’s game between BU and No. 23/22 University of South Carolina is set for 5:00 p.m., and the contest will be viewable on SEC Network +.