Boston College Athletics
2021 Softball Preview: The Storm Is Coming
February 07, 2021 | Softball, #ForBoston Files
The stats from last year overshadow the truth about BC's offense
Batted ball sports often center on the common misconception that an individual is capable of creating team accomplishments. Game play revolves around one person in a particular role, so there's this notion that one person carries the most weight and impact at any given time. Conversations dismantle teamwork and chemistry by hyper focusing on one player's natural talent, a situational analysis of how an individual throws, hits or fields.
Boston College head coach Amy Kvilhaug all but forbids that brand of vernacular. Her vocabulary is steeped in cohesion and the notion that a rising tide can lift individual ships. She believes a team is almost an armada, a group of players becoming stronger on their own by working together.Â
It's a development and enhancement process, and it's one of the core tenets to building success in Chestnut Hill. As the 2021 season dawns on the horizon, it's also the science question without a direct answer, even though the search for the right alchemy will ultimately prove the key to a successful campaign during a most unique seasonal setting.
"My philosophy has always been to have a little bit of everything," Kvilhaug said. "We want a little bit of speed, a little bit of power, a little bit of hitting for average and a lot of athleticism. That's what I would love the makeup of a team to be. It doesn't always line up that way, so you try to do something on a daily basis, to create lineups asking what you're going to do and how you're going to approach the season."
The approach is where BC found its sea legs after it stumbled out of the gate offensively during the abrupt 2020 season. The Eagles were held to three hits or less in four of their first seven games and seven of the 21 games played, a full third of the completed schedule. They won only one of those games but did so in a unique setting when Susannah Anderson and Georgetown's London Diller threw competing no-hitters against one another.Â
It took a walk, an error, a sacrifice bunt and a manufactured ground ball to post the game's only run in a 1-0 win over the Hoyas, but the team started trending upwards after the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. It pounded opposing pitching for at least eight hits in four games over the last two weeks of games and used four home runs to post wins over Elon, Western Carolina and Georgia Tech.
The upward trend provides the optimism after the Eagles finished the precipitous 2020 season as one of the ACC's lowest-ranked offenses. They were at or near the bottom of the conference in almost every category and finished nearly 30 points behind the next-closest league team in batting average. Their overall power numbers sagged to a league-worst 10 home runs, and the slugging percentage and on-base percentage both struggled to vault over other programs. The lack of base runners led to a dearth of stolen bases, and BC found itself shut out in four games with three others producing only one run.
It's a shadowy treatment capable of clouding judgment of BC from last year. Ellie Mataya finished the year with a .294 average and led the team with both 10 runs scored and six stolen bases, and AJ Alatorre knocked in a team-high 13 runs with a .282 average. Jenna Ergle and Gianna Boccagno provided pop with a combined 15 RBIs while producing home runs in nearly 40 percent of their combined hits.Â
"I think of people like Gianna Boccagno," Kvilhaug said. "She hit a grand slam at Georgia Tech, and it was one of the most fun grand slams (to watch). It was a bomb. It was towering over a shed in left field, and it was so awesome. So you're going to see some better numbers out of players like her because she's playing (this year) with a lot of confidence, and I think we're going to get a lot of different contributions."
Gelling those individuals in her second year is where Kvilhaug sees a direct path to the top of the ACC. BC finished last season with the fourth-best pitching staff in the conference and enters this year with virtually all of its production. To tie it all together, Kvilhaug added a new volunteer assistant coach in Madi Shaw. One of Fordham's all-time leading hitters, she was a former recruiting target of Kvilhaug at St. John's before reaching the national tournament with the Rams.
"She had a great career at Fordham," Kvilhaug said. "She hit 13 or 15 home runs per year and could hit for average as well. She was solid, and I've known her since she was a freshman in high school. Last year, we spent a lot of time on the technical aspect of hitting with the swing, and we didn't spend time on the plan. That's a little bit of her forte, to spend time on the approach because I feel confidence can go a long way.Â
"I think our confidence is in a better spot right now," she continued, "and we have a plan. They know what they're looking for, what pitches they're looking and what they're trying to do in the box. I think people are going to sleep on us a little bit this year because they're going to look at numbers. Numbers can give you a pretty accurate picture of who our stronger hitters were. It'll be great because as the season progressed (last year), we got better."
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Boston College head coach Amy Kvilhaug all but forbids that brand of vernacular. Her vocabulary is steeped in cohesion and the notion that a rising tide can lift individual ships. She believes a team is almost an armada, a group of players becoming stronger on their own by working together.Â
It's a development and enhancement process, and it's one of the core tenets to building success in Chestnut Hill. As the 2021 season dawns on the horizon, it's also the science question without a direct answer, even though the search for the right alchemy will ultimately prove the key to a successful campaign during a most unique seasonal setting.
"My philosophy has always been to have a little bit of everything," Kvilhaug said. "We want a little bit of speed, a little bit of power, a little bit of hitting for average and a lot of athleticism. That's what I would love the makeup of a team to be. It doesn't always line up that way, so you try to do something on a daily basis, to create lineups asking what you're going to do and how you're going to approach the season."
The approach is where BC found its sea legs after it stumbled out of the gate offensively during the abrupt 2020 season. The Eagles were held to three hits or less in four of their first seven games and seven of the 21 games played, a full third of the completed schedule. They won only one of those games but did so in a unique setting when Susannah Anderson and Georgetown's London Diller threw competing no-hitters against one another.Â
It took a walk, an error, a sacrifice bunt and a manufactured ground ball to post the game's only run in a 1-0 win over the Hoyas, but the team started trending upwards after the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. It pounded opposing pitching for at least eight hits in four games over the last two weeks of games and used four home runs to post wins over Elon, Western Carolina and Georgia Tech.
The upward trend provides the optimism after the Eagles finished the precipitous 2020 season as one of the ACC's lowest-ranked offenses. They were at or near the bottom of the conference in almost every category and finished nearly 30 points behind the next-closest league team in batting average. Their overall power numbers sagged to a league-worst 10 home runs, and the slugging percentage and on-base percentage both struggled to vault over other programs. The lack of base runners led to a dearth of stolen bases, and BC found itself shut out in four games with three others producing only one run.
It's a shadowy treatment capable of clouding judgment of BC from last year. Ellie Mataya finished the year with a .294 average and led the team with both 10 runs scored and six stolen bases, and AJ Alatorre knocked in a team-high 13 runs with a .282 average. Jenna Ergle and Gianna Boccagno provided pop with a combined 15 RBIs while producing home runs in nearly 40 percent of their combined hits.Â
"I think of people like Gianna Boccagno," Kvilhaug said. "She hit a grand slam at Georgia Tech, and it was one of the most fun grand slams (to watch). It was a bomb. It was towering over a shed in left field, and it was so awesome. So you're going to see some better numbers out of players like her because she's playing (this year) with a lot of confidence, and I think we're going to get a lot of different contributions."
Gelling those individuals in her second year is where Kvilhaug sees a direct path to the top of the ACC. BC finished last season with the fourth-best pitching staff in the conference and enters this year with virtually all of its production. To tie it all together, Kvilhaug added a new volunteer assistant coach in Madi Shaw. One of Fordham's all-time leading hitters, she was a former recruiting target of Kvilhaug at St. John's before reaching the national tournament with the Rams.
"She had a great career at Fordham," Kvilhaug said. "She hit 13 or 15 home runs per year and could hit for average as well. She was solid, and I've known her since she was a freshman in high school. Last year, we spent a lot of time on the technical aspect of hitting with the swing, and we didn't spend time on the plan. That's a little bit of her forte, to spend time on the approach because I feel confidence can go a long way.Â
"I think our confidence is in a better spot right now," she continued, "and we have a plan. They know what they're looking for, what pitches they're looking and what they're trying to do in the box. I think people are going to sleep on us a little bit this year because they're going to look at numbers. Numbers can give you a pretty accurate picture of who our stronger hitters were. It'll be great because as the season progressed (last year), we got better."
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Players Mentioned
3B/1B
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
C/3B
/ Softball
UT
/ Softball
OF
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