In its final games of the 2026 season, the Massachusetts softball team recorded a 1-2 series record against Ohio. The Minutewomen’s (19-30, 10-17 MAC) seniors shined in a 10-4 win on Saturday. The Bobcats (35-18, 17-10 MAC) hung on to a 2-1 lead in the first matchup on Friday and claimed another victory in the second game on Friday with a score of 10-4.
The highlight of Saturday’s contest came in the second inning when Olivia Packard hit a home run to deep center field. The senior threw her arms up in celebration as she rounded first base and saw the ball go over the fence. The starting catcher for UMass was met with her teammates’ cheers at home plate.
While Packard opened the hitting for the Minutewomen in the second, her teammates soon followed. Singles from Angie Rama, Odyssey Torres and Lily Woodworth, along with a double from Riain Keefe led to a three-run inning for UMass. After scoring only one run against Ohio pitcher Skipp Miller on Friday, it had nine hits against her on Saturday.
“[Miller]is a pretty good pitcher,” head coach Danielle Henderson said. “She was the [MAC] pitcher of the year last year, so for them to not back down and just stay with their game is important.”
Junior Grace Colucci had a strong weekend at the plate, recording five hits and five RBIs. A hard hit up the middle on Saturday brought in both Rama and Keefe and gave the Minutewomen a 7-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning.
“[Colucci] has come on hot the past five or six games,” Henderson said. “She’s always getting RBIs and that’s just who she is as a hitter, so I was happy to see her do that. She gets a lot of hard-line drives.”
UMass’ 12 hits on Saturday came from seven players in the lineup, with five recording two hits. Tiegan Walsh’s single to shallow center field in the bottom of the first opened the scoring, bringing in two runs and beginning a day of strong offense for the Minutewomen.
The Bobcats gained the lead in the first contest on Friday in the third inning when a sacrifice fly ball to left field brought in Belle Hummel from third base. Unable to get Hummel out at the plate, UMass then caught Ohio’s Colleen Bare in a run-down between first and second base to try to get an out, but the senior dove safely into scoring position at second.
The Minutewomen managed to halt the Bobcats momentum in the third when Katharine Heslin caught a line drive from Izzie Wilson. The ball initially ricocheted off the New Jersey native’s glove, but she recovered quickly to make the catch and end the inning and leave the score 2-1.
Despite the loss, Hannah Streicher’s seven-inning performance helped keep the score close for UMass. The junior mixed up pitch speeds throughout the game, having back-to-back strikeouts with off-speed pitches in the second inning. Ohio struggled to predict Streicher’s pitches throughout the game, with her changeups still leaving hitters off balance in the seventh inning.
“[Streicher] does a very good job at missing their barrel,” Henderson said. “The fact that she kept them to so little runs, it was huge, and she came up in big moments. She just had a phenomenal season, so I’m excited for her to come back and be even better next year.”
Even with Streicher’s dominant performance, the Bobcats found a way to get on the board quickly. Hummel hit a home run over the right field fence as the first batter of the game. The Minutewomen didn’t let it rattle their defense, getting three quick outs in a row to end the first inning before Ohio did any more damage.
UMass came back with the bats in the bottom of the first inning with a Torres double to right-center field, bringing in Keefe from second base to tie the score 1-1. The Bobcats’ defense learned from this, as Torres hit a line drive to the same spot two innings later, but was caught by Bare.
The biggest upset on the weekend was the second game on Friday that ended in a 10-4 loss for the Minutewomen. The contest got away from UMass in the third inning when Bare and Shelby Westler hit home runs against Olivia Cutuli. The four-run inning for Ohio made the score 7-2, and the Bobcats extended their lead with four hits and three more runs in the top of the sixth.
The Minutewomen made the score 3-2 in the bottom of the second inning with a double to left center from Colucci that brought in Lillie Scheivert, who singled earlier in the inning. Colucci scored off a single up the middle from Heslin, but UMass could not tie the game before Ohio’s dominant third inning.
As Henderson and the team reflect on their first year in the Mid-American Conference, Henderson said this season was a year of learning for her team, and that she’s looking forward to entering next season with some more confidence.
“We finally got our feet wet in the conference,” Henderson said. “We didn’t know what to expect, and I think they realized that it wasn’t so bad…I want them to remember how they feel now, so we can start it that way [next year].”
Madison Keddy can be reached at [email protected].
