{"id":166062,"date":"2026-02-06T02:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T02:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166062\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T02:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T02:20:10","slug":"softball-blanks-cal-state-bakersfield-falls-to-ucf-in-opening-day-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166062\/","title":{"rendered":"Softball Blanks Cal State Bakersfield, Falls to UCF in Opening Day Split"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Highlighted by senior Kasey Ricard’s<\/a> strong pitching performance and a clutch at-bat from junior Kylie Doherty<\/a>, the Boston University softball team opened the season with a 3-0 victory over Cal State Bakersfield before suffering a run-rule loss to Black & Gold Classic host UCF Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Ricard (1-0) scattered three hits over seven innings with the help of seven strikeouts against the Roadrunners (0-1), and the offense broke the scoreless deadlock in the fifth on a fielding error and Doherty’s two-RBI single. During the second contest, the 2025 NCAA Regional finalist Knights (1-0) scored six runs in both the first and fourth innings to run away with a 13-0 (5) decision.<\/p>\n

Game 1: BU – 3, CSUB – 0<\/p>\n

HOW IT HAPPENED
\n \n<\/p>\n


\n\tAfter quickly retiring the side in the top of the first, the Roadrunners put two in scoring position with zero outs on a lead-off double and single, but Ricard earned three consecutive swinging strikeouts to keep the game scoreless.
\n\tIn the next inning, senior Megan Coyle<\/a> earned a walk and advanced to second on junior\u00a0Kyomi Apalit’s<\/a>\u00a0two-out single before UCF ended the threat on a fly out to left.
\n\tCSUB stranded a runner at second in the fourth following a one-out walk and stolen base when Ricard earned back-to-back fly outs.
\n\tFreshman Addison Michel<\/a> led off the fifth with a hit-by-pitch and eventually scored on a fielding error.
\n\tBU then loaded the bases via two more hit-by-pitches to set up Doherty’s two-RBI single up the middle for a 3-0 lead.
\n\tRicard retired the next seven Roadrunners and then in the seventh after allowing a two-out single earned a shallow foul out to third for the win. <\/p>\n

GAME 2: UCF – 13, BU – 0 (5 inn.)<\/p>\n

HOW IT HAPPENED<\/p>\n


\n\tSenior Brooke Deppiesse<\/a> started the game by earning a lead-off walk and moving to second on sophomore Camryn Lyons’<\/a> sac bunt, but she ended up stranded at second on two strikeouts.
\n\tUCF quickly took the lead on a hit-by-pitch and one-out RBI double against sophomore Danika Nell<\/a> (0-1).
\n\tNell earned a strikeout during the following at-bat, but the Knights responded with another RBI double and loaded the bases on a hit-by-pitch and walk.
\n\tKendall Yarnell blew open the game with a grand slam against sophomore Ava Johnson<\/a>.
\n\tAfter preventing further damage in the first, senior Haley Ganino<\/a> limited the Knights to just one run until they added six more runs in the fourth on three combined two-RBI hits against her and classmate Olivia DeLong<\/a>.
\n\tFreshman Mary Catherine Stanley<\/a> helped BU avoid a no-hitter with a one-out single to left in the top of the fourth. <\/p>\n

LOOKING AHEAD<\/p>\n


\n\tBU will next continue the Black & Gold Classic against Maryland (9 a.m.) and No. 16\/19 Duke (2 p.m.) on Friday (Feb. 6).
\n\tThe Terrapins own a 4-1 lead in the all-time series after claiming a 3-2 victory in 2016.
\n\tThe Blue Devils are tied at 1-1 after BU won the first meeting (7-4) in 2018 down in Florida and came up short, 4-2, in 2024 at Duke. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Highlighted by senior Kasey Ricard’s strong pitching performance and a clutch at-bat from junior Kylie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-166062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}