It was another historic day for ace pitcher Dawn Bodrug, who tossed her second no-hitter in the last week and did so in back-to-back starts.
Behind her, the Stony Brook softball team’s offense was outstanding, mercy-ruling the St. John’s Red Storm 8-0 on Tuesday, April 5 by the end of the sixth inning.
Bodrug was simply masterful, yet again. In her last start, she no-hit Maine while striking out 16 batters. Her only blemishes were one walk and one hit-by-pitch. On Tuesday, she struck out 15 batters in six innings while only allowing two walks and two hit-by-pitches. Despite her dominance, Bodrug was humble about her historic performance.
“Honestly, it wasn’t really my best day,” she said in a postgame interview with The Statesman. “Every pitch, I felt like I was reminding myself, ‘Drive with your legs, trust your spin.’ My pitches were working; however, I did have to work through some mechanical things.”
The no-hitter was the fourth of Bodrug’s collegiate career and the 16th in program history. Bodrug threw a perfect game on Feb. 23, 2020 against Cornell — her second career Division I start — and tossed a second no-hitter last year on March 27 against Binghamton.
An interesting note on Bodrug’s dominance: St. John’s (8-25) did not swing into an out until the very last hitter. Each of Bodrug’s first nine outs were reached via strikeout before a sacrifice bunt in the top of the fourth broke her streak. Then, the next five hitters all struck out. With two outs in the top of the sixth inning, Red Storm shortstop London Jarrard hit a fly ball to left field that was put away.
In other words, Bodrug’s first 17 outs were either via strikeout or bunt attempt.
“It was another great ballgame by Dawn. I thought today she was really efficient. She was really dialed in and she dictated the tempo,” head coach Megan T. Bryant said.
The whole rest of the team came to play, as well. Stony Brook (18-10) scored eight runs on 12 hits. Seven of nine batters hit safely, and eight reached base.
The offense was led by utility player Catherine Anne Kupinski, who started the scoring with a base hit up the middle in the bottom of the second. With two runners on, she singled into center which scored one run, but St. John’s center fielder Meisha Murray misplayed the ball and allowed the back runner to score on the error. After that, center fielder Alicia Orosco drove in Kupinski with an RBI single of her own.
The score stayed 3-0 until the bottom of the fifth, when Kupinski singled home her second RBI of the day to make it 4-0. Then the offense kicked the doors down in the bottom of the sixth, where they reached the mercy rule with a big four-spot.
Right fielder Alyssa Costello continued her torrid stretch, smoking a two-run single to right field. Catcher Corinne Badger then promptly lined a single the other way to drive in Costello. Now leading 7-0, Kupinski smoked one up the right-center field gap and Badger hustled from first base to score the run. That served as the walk-off hit and gave Stony Brook the win and Bodrug the no-hitter.
Kupinski led the way, going 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. Costello, infielder Kyra McFarland and designated player Lindsey Osmer all had two hits apiece. Bryant praised Kupinski in her postgame interview with The Statesman.
“Catherine Anne is having a good season, and today was one of her best days of the season. She was really, really locked in … She’s good when there’s runners in scoring position. That’s her time,” Bryant said.
While Bryant planned to give Bodrug rest and pitch Shelbi Denman and Ashton Melaas in Wednesday’s doubleheader against Seton Hall, the games were ultimately postponed because of rain.
