Harvard hype

The Boston University softball team can clinch the America East regular season title with one win in this weekend's three-game series against the second-place University at Albany. Before that, though, the Terriers travel to Soldiers Field today with hopes of avenging last week's 1-0 loss to Harvard University.

Despite a 2-for-3 performance from freshman centerfielder April Setterlund, BU (29-17, 15-3 AE) couldn't score against Crimson pitchers Shelly Madick and Dana Roberts. Freshman Kelley Engman pitched well enough, but fell to 6-5 on the season thanks to sophomore Lauren Murphy's seeing-eye single through the left side of the infield in the fifth inning.

Today's game will serve as a tune-up for both teams. While BU partakes in a three-game series later this week to decide home-field advantage in the conference tournament, Harvard (24-20) will face Princeton University for the Ivy League championship. BU coach Shawn Rychcik said he plans on using all three of his pitchers today, but made it clear that he's still playing to win.

"We're going to do everything we can to win," Rychcik said. "Losing isn't going to give us any momentum going into this weekend."

The Terriers have a two-game lead over Albany (26-15, 13-5) entering the weekend, but that wasn't the case two weeks ago. Entering play April 19, the Great Danes had sole possession of first place -- one game ahead of BU.

Since then, Albany has gone 3-4 in conference play, while the Terriers have won six of seven to surpass the Great Danes. Albany lost two of three to Stony Brook University last weekend and two of three to the University of Hartford the weekend before, with a mid-week win over the University of Vermont in between.

BU has wrapped three-game sweeps of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and Binghamton University around a mid-week loss to the University of Maine. The Terriers aren't aiming for one win this weekend, though.

"Only having to win one game is nice," Rychcik said. "But if we're going to win this conference, we should be able to win more than one game against the second-place team. One win won't prepare us for the conference tourney."

The series will feature two of the conference's best pitchers in BU junior Cassidi Hardy and Albany sophomore Leah McIntosh. The two hurlers rank second and fourth in wins with 14 and 12, respectively, and are tied for third with identical 1.95 ERAs. McIntosh leads the conference in strikeouts per seven innings pitched (9.3) and strikeout-to-walk ratio with 4.3 strikeouts for every walk.

"We hit [McIntosh] a little bit last year," Rychcik said. "She throws hard and works people away with her curveball. We have to make sure we control the strike zone and not chase bad pitches."

The Great Dane offense revolves around leftfielder and leadoff hitter Amber Maisonet. She ranks third in the conference in hitting (.364) and leads America East in steals with 22 on 25 attempts.

"She's one of the best hitters in the conference," Rychcik said. "We have to keep her off base because if she gets on, she will run."

But the conference's top two hitters reside in the Terrier lineup. Setterlund leads the way with a .370 average and junior shortstop Melissa Dubay is close behind at .366. Setterlund ranks second in hits (54), runs (34) and doubles (11), while Dubay is third in RBI (29) and second in total bases (79).