After a sweep over St. John’s, the UConn softball team is headed to Boston for a midweek matchup against Boston College.
The Huskies are coming off of a three-game sweep over Big East opponent St. John’s. This series improved their record to 25-10 (.713 pct) overall and12-3 (.800 pct) in conference play. In the second game of the series against the Bulldogs, head coach Lauren Valentino earned her 100th win with the program. Additionally, UConn is on an eight-game winning streak and looks to continue that before they begin their three-game series against Butler coming up this weekend.
This week, two Huskies were awarded Big East Honors. For the first time in her career, first-year Hope Jenkins was named Big East Pitcher of the Week. Also, for the second straight week and the third time this season, Lexi Hastings earned Big East Honor Roll.
In all three of her starts on the week, Jenkins was dominant with a 3-0 record, she improved her personal record to 11-2 in her first-year season. She led the team with pitching 17 innings, posting a 1.59 era and striking out 20 batters. Jenkins started in the circle for the series opener against St. Johns retired 17 out of the 19 batters she faced. She continued right where she started in the series finale, only giving up two hits, a game high eight strikeouts and tossing her fifth complete game of the season.
Hastings has been an offensive machine for the Huskies, as she is on a nine-game hitting streak. Additionally, she’s riding a 24-game on base streak that started in early March. On 14 at bats this week, she recorded eight hits and added six runs scored to the team’s total of 32 this season. The sophomore outfielder had her fourth three-hit game of the season in the series opener against St. John’s last weekend. She is also 6-for-6 on stolen bases making her have a perfect 27-for-27 for stolen bases. Hastings finished the weekend with a slash line of .571/.714/.647.
On the other hand, Boston College has a 18-19 (.486) overall record and are 2-10 (.167 pct) in ACC conference play. The Eagles are 2-6 while playing at home and 11-8 in away games. Though they are facing the Huskies at home, this could be an opportunity for Boston College to change the pattern of losing home games.
About three weeks ago on March 21, the Huskies hosted the Eagles in a midweek matchup. Connecticut took the 9-7 victory behind capitalizing on the many opportunities they had to score. At one point, UConn had a 6-0 lead over Boston College but with a huge fourth inning, the Eagles tied the score at six. However, the Huskies responded quickly to the Eagles offensive explosion which led them to the win. Despite Boston College’s tough stretch, they still have weapons that the Huskies should be known for going into this matchup at their home field.
The single game between UConn and Boston College is set for Tuesday, April 11 at 4:00 p.m in Chestnut Hill, MA. It will not be streamed on any platforms, but live stats will be posted on StatBroadcast Systems.
