 "Photo: Courtesy Tom Wasiczko")
BRONX, N.Y. — She knew it.
Despite being 0-for-5 in the Atlantic 10 Tournament heading into the bottom of the sixth inning of a 0-0 game against second-seeded Charlotte, Whitney Williams, the shortstop of Massachusetts softball team, came up with the biggest hit of the tournament for the No. 20 Minutewomen.
“I knew that it was bottom of the sixth, we definitely needed a good hit and I just stayed calm,” Williams said after the game. “I knew she was going to serve up a nice fat, flat pitch and I just took my hack.”
That hack sent a 1-1 pitch from the 49er’s (33-15, 15-5 A-10) Emily Jeffrey curling around the right field-foul pole to give the No. 1-seeded Minutewomen a 1-0 lead.
“I knew as soon as I hit it that it was out,” Williams said. “I just kind of watched it and I was like ‘That is definitely out’.”
Whitney Mollica, the second batter of the inning for UMass (37-8, 18-2 A-10), followed up Williams solo shot, with one of her own. Mollica’s home run cleared the 18-foot wall out in left field at Bahoshy Field on the Fordham campus and gave UMass a 2-0 lead, a lead that would stick after Charlotte went down in order in the top of the seventh.
“[Williams and Mollica] lifted us to a 2-0 win and those were huge hits, they worked their way back into the count on both occasions,” UMass coach Elaine Sortino said. “[Jeffrey] is a tough pitcher and I’m just grateful we came up with the hits when they counted.”
Jeffrey finished the game giving up five hits one walk and two runs while striking out eight. The loss brings the juniors record to 23-9 on the season.
The 49er’s ace confused UMass’ bats for the majority of the game, giving up just one hit through the first three innings – a double of the left field wall to freshman Kyllie Magill. She found herself in some trouble in the fourth but got out of a two out, two-on jam as Mollica was thrown out on a close play at home by Charlotte’s right fielder, Whitney Williams, on an Audrey Boutin single.
Brandice Balschmiter took the circle for the Minutewomen for the second consecutive day, pitching a complete game shutout. The four-time A-10 Pitcher of the Year gave up three hits and three walks – all three came in the top of the sixth – and struck out eight.
“I wasn’t throwing as hard as I had been the last couple of days,” Balschmiter said. “Yesterday was a really long day [after the four hour, 15 minute rain delay] and it was kind of stressful being around here for eight hours, but I did what I needed to do, hit my spots and moved the ball around.”
In the fourth inning, Balschmiter gave up a single – the last hit she would give up in the game – to the leadoff hitter, Tenaya Tucker. Kendra McCall pinch ran for Tucker and was advanced to second on the next pitch as Siera “Cee” Brooks laid down a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher. McCall later stole third on a delayed steal.
Balscmiter struck out the next batter, and then squared off with Charlotte’s designated player, Jamie West. Balschmiter got ahead 1-2 in the first three pitches before West fouled off the next four. West took the next pitch for a ball to even the count at 2-2 before fouling off the next two pitches, the last one going off of her foot.
“I knew it was a good fight and I knew after she had fouled a ball off of her foot that the next pitch no matter what I was going to get her,” Balschmiter said.
The next pitch fooled West as she went down swinging to end the inning and keep the game scoreless.
“[West] didn’t have the right mindset [after fouling the pitch off her foot] and wasn’t ready to hit so I knew I was in a good spot to get her out then,” Baslchmiter said.
The top of the sixth saw more trouble for Balschmiter as she walked three batters in the inning to load the bases, before getting West to fly out to left field, just short of the wall.
“The strike zone kind of disappear [in the top of the sixth],” Balschmiter said. “Strikes were no longer strikes so I had to work around that, had to be a little bit stronger on my part.”
“[Balschmiter] kind of lost the zone a little bit. She was around the plate, it wasn’t like she wasn’t and she wasn’t going to give anything good to hit,” Sortino said. “We were in a 0-0 ball game at that time. I thought she had pretty good command of her pitches and they were patient at the plate. They did their job and we did ours and we came up with the big fly out that we needed on a rise ball.”
The win advanced UMass to the championship round on Saturday. The Minutewomen’s opponent is still in question, all depending on the outcomes of Saturday's first game. Saint Joseph’s, who beat St. Louis on Friday moves on to face Charlotte at noon on Saturday for a matchup with UMass following that game.
There may be two possible opponents for the Minutewomen, but regardless their game plan stays the same.
“The post season is going to be hard,” Sortino said. “We have to rise to the challenge, no body is going to roll over and die and every game, every pitch is going to matter so you have to be ready to handle a situation.”
Jeffrey R. Larnard can be reached at jlarnard@dailycollegian.com.
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