BY ELI CLOUTIER, For Abington News
Lauren Keleher bleeds softball.
The senior from Abington is the heart of the Boston University softball team. The team doesn’t function at its peak without her.
Through the first 23 games of her final collegiate season, her team is 20-3 — the best start in program history — and Keleher is hitting .442 with 17 runs batted in and a team-high four home runs, while providing elite defense in center field.
“Lauren is elite in every aspect,” said Terrier Head Coach Ashley Waters.
Add being a leader to her archetype, and Keleher is complete as they come.
“She’s always trying to make everyone better,” Keleher’s teammate and fellow senior, Kayla Roncin, said. “She holds people accountable if someone isn’t working as hard as they can.”
Waters jokes, “It’s almost as if she’s an extension of the coaching staff.”
For the Terrier’s leadoff hitter, it’s about precision, pride, and swinging at good pitches. Plus, she and her fellow seniors want to leave their mark.
“Leaving the program better than I found it has been a big idea that all of us seniors have been thinking about,” Keleher said.
And they’ve done just that, but they want more.
The Terriers have been ranked for three straight weeks by D1Softball and are up to 24th in the poll. And with Keleher dialed in, the team will continue to be nationally recognized.
Green Wave Pride
Keleher gives credit to her hometown. It’s where her passion for the game started. She first picked up a softball at five years old and grew up playing with her best friends through high school.
“We’re hoping to end on a high note and hopefully have another historic season,” Keleher said.
“If I hadn’t come from Abington, I don’t think I would be the softball player I am today,” she said.
Sports were a big part of Keleher’s childhood, and she started winning at a young age.
In 2011, she was part of the Abington Girls Softball team that won the under-10 Eastern National Championship. The group took down a number of regional titles over the years. They beat club teams as a team only made up of players from Abington — a fond memory for Keleher.
“I remember it being a special moment for us to represent our hometown, [to] put it on the map,” she said.
Success followed Keleher to Abington High. She won three South Shore League titles and was named league Player of the Year as a junior when she tallied 17 extra base hits with a .681 average.
Most importantly, as a sophomore, her team won the Division 3 state title. Keleher led off the championship game with a triple and scored one batter later to help Abington grab a quick lead they never relinquished.
“It’s something that everybody in high school wants to accomplish, and I was lucky to do it with some of my best friends,” Keleher said.
Although the COVID pandemic erased her senior year softball season, her accomplishments make her a “definite” future AHS Athletic Hall of Famer, according to Shawn Reilly, who heads up the Hall’s Nominating Committee.
“Lauren was one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen play at Abington High School, he said. “She is also a person of unquestionable character and sportsmanship. She was always a source of positive energy and pride and someone a lot of younger kids have looked up to.”
Shipping Up To Boston
She didn’t miss a beat when she arrived at Boston University in 2021. She homered in her first collegiate at bat, and won Patriot League Rookie of the Year.
Keleher has started every game in the outfield for Terriers in the three years since, helping BU win three regular-season conference titles, two tournament titles, and two first-team All-Patriot League bids.
The Terriers have reached the national tournament twice in Keleher’s first three years, first as a freshman in 2021 and then as a junior in 2023. The team failed to advance out of the regionals both times.
With her senior season in full swing, Waters can see a newfound level of confidence shining through Keleher.
Keleher is on pace to have her best collegiate season, but that’s not her main focus. She wants to go out with a bang, win a regional in the national tournament in May, maybe make it to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series. In order to get there, she treats every game as if it’s her last.
“She’s worked really hard this offseason, but I also think Lauren is just letting herself go,” Waters said. “I genuinely believe that she believes that this is her year, and she’s playing like it.”
The Terrier’s softball program is going to miss their leader when she’s gone, but Keleher has cultivated relationships that will stick with her far beyond BU.
“As much as I love her as a player, I love her as a person,” Waters said.
Throughout her softball career, Keleher has won a lot of games, but the cherry on top of it has been the time with her teammates.
“Softball has given me my best friends, people that I’m going to have for the rest of my life,” she said.
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