After freshman Erica Bailey hit her second leadoff-pitch home run of the day over the wall, Brandeis freshman pitcher Natalie Volpe looked over at the visiting team dugout at her coach and shook her head. The two-run shot sparked a Tufts offensive run that yielded four runs and sent the Judges home early, ending the game after only five innings. But that's just how it goes at Spicer Field.
The Tufts softball team defeated non-conference Brandeis 8-0 yesterday, picking up its fifth straight win to stand at 20-5 heading into the final stretch of the 2005 season. Bailey pitched all five innings, striking out two and holding on to a no-hitter until the final inning. Bailey earned her sixth win and second shutout of the season, while Volpe fell to 3-7 with the loss.
"I just want to do my job as a pitcher, and that's to throw strikes," Bailey said. "Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and today it was just all working."
The pace started off slow for both teams, with the only score coming from a solo home run by freshman Danielle Lopez to give Tufts a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. The home run was Lopez's seventh of the season and pushed the Jumbos over the Tufts single-season team home-run record, previously set at 27.
The Jumbos came alive at the plate in the bottom of the third inning. Sophomore left fielder Alaina Thiel knocked a leadoff double to center field. A single from sophomore Anne Ross sent Thiel home and set up Bailey's first two-run shot. A deep shot from senior co-captain Katie Smith fell just a few feet short of the fence, but the damage had been done and the Jumbos took the field leading 4-0.
It only got worse for the Judges, as they brought only seven batters to the plate in the final two innings. In the bottom of the fifth, another Bailey first-pitch home run brought in Ross for another two on the scoreboard. A Smith double up the first baseline, a single from freshman Megan Cusick, and an RBI from sophomore Lindsay Evans put the Jumbos up 7-0, one run short of the eight needed to end a game before regulation seven innings.
The final score came on a line drive from junior outfielder Jess Barrett that sent Cusick barreling home.
In 10 appearances this season, Bailey leads Tufts pitchers with 26 strikeouts and 49 innings pitched. She gave up only one hit yesterday when Brandeis freshman Kaitlin Streilein singled to center field. Bailey's standout play has made an impact for the Jumbos on the mound and at the plate. She's hitting .393 with seven home runs and 43 total bases.
Coach Cheryl Milligan said Bailey's role as a freshman has played a huge role in the squad's success this season.
"Erica came here and is doing what she's supposed to be doing," Milligan said. "[The freshmen] all are - they knew what their job was when they got here in September, they knew last May, and I'd take our freshmen against anybody's. And leadoff home runs never hurt anybody."
Senior co-captain Courtney Bongioloatti agreed.
"The freshmen have been really impressive," she said. "They came in playing like upperclassmen from the start."
The Jumbos moved to 20-5 with the win and seem likely to sweep NESCAC. With two division league games against Trinity and Colby remaining, the team is looking to the NESCAC playoffs and ahead to the national tournament.
"This team is definitely 16 players contributing," Milligan said. "We can't find a pitcher to lose right now, and that's fantastic."
"I think we'll win NESCACs, I think we can win regionals, and I think we can go to the World Series if we keep playing like this," Bongiolatti said. "Trinity and Colby are good teams, but I don't think there's a pitcher in NESCAC that can throw around us."
