Pitching duels have become commonplace for the Massachusetts softball team late in the 2026 regular season, and a 3-1 loss to Boston University continued that theme. With each team’s ace in the circle, the Terriers (41-13, 16-2 Patriot) added enough support to give Kasey Ricard her 29th win of the season, breaking her own program record of 28 victories, which she shared with Ali DuBois.
The Minutewomen (18-28, 9-15 Mid-American) punched in their only run of the game in the bottom of the second inning. Trailing 2-0 as Boston University got through to Hannah Streicher in the half-inning prior, Lily Woodworth gave the home offense its first hit of the game with a single pulled through the right side of the infield.
Tiegan Walsh walked to put the Connecticut native in scoring position, which brought Grace Colucci to the dish. In her first at-bat against Ricard, the junior left fielder muscled a ground ball up the middle despite getting jammed on the pitch. Woodworth took off as soon as she saw the top-spun ball touch dirt, and got halfway down the third base line by the time Camryn Lyons fired home from center.
The second baseman slid in safely without a tag attempt from Livia Christopher. Against many pitchers, this could’ve been the start of a big inning for UMass, but Ricard shut down its momentum. The inning ended with flyouts from Olivia Packard and Katharine Heslin, and the Minutewomen’s offensive cohesion along with it.
A two-out single from Odyssey Torres in the third and a two-out walk by Riain Keefe in the fifth were the only instances in which a UMass hitter reached base for the rest of the game. Ricard continuously forced the Minutewomen into weak contact in the air, producing 15 flyouts on the way to her 20th complete game of the season. Each of the three hits UMass notched caught the infield dirt, but the home squad only put seven total pieces of contact on the ground.
“Ricard is a very good pitcher,” head coach Danielle Henderson said. “We just had to make adjustments to get on top of the ball and try to put the ball on the ground so we could get more singles. Instead of, with a riseball pitcher, you go up and get it, and you’re just hitting fly balls, which are easier to make outs.”
Streicher led the Minutewomen through multiple jams defensively, giving up just three runs on 10 hits. The junior let up two runs in the top of the second, which gave Ricard enough breathing room to win the battle in the circle.
A single by Lyons and a double into left-center by Irys Kline put two runners in scoring position to start the inning. Kyomi Apalit grounded hard to Woodworth at second, an ideal result to cut down a runner at the plate, but the throw popped out of Packard’s glove as she swung for the tag.
Christopher brought in the second run with a line drive into left field, putting Apalit on third. One walk later, the bases were loaded with no outs, but Streicher managed her way out of the jam.
The Terriers added one more insurance run in the top of the fourth, coming out with three straight singles to start the inning.
The UMass offense never found the spark to support its ace against Ricard, who is putting the finishing touches on a legendary season for Boston University. The senior set a career-high with her 45th appearance of the season against the Minutewomen, and is inching towards 900 career strikeouts, needing five more from her 895.
UMass closes its regular season with a three-game series against Ohio. The Minutewomen start their series with the Bobcats on Friday, May 1, playing a doubleheader with start times at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Then, UMass closes out its year with Senior Day on Saturday, May 2, at 12 p.m.
“[We have to] just go out, compete and have fun,” Henderson said. “It’s going to be senior weekend, so [I look forward to] them just being able to play and us playing for them.”
Tym Brown can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @tym_brown1.
