The youth of the 2006 softball team, one of it's defining characteristics, was on full display on Sunday in a doubleheader against Williams.
Dropped fly balls, hesitation on the field, and a few nerves resulted in six errors for the Jumbos and made for dangerous innings.
"Some of it may have been the wind, but I think it was mostly misjudgments and some nerves showing through," coach Cheryl Milligan said. "Those errors are ridiculous, but the good news is that they're easily fixable."
Thirteen of the 20 Jumbos are freshman and sophomores, and they fill between five and seven of the starting spots. In the first game, an infield of five sophomores surrounded senior co-captain Sarah Conroy on the mound, and in the second, four sophomores and two freshmen filled the six spots.
The inexperience can be a liability, especially in close games against big opponents. Sunday's games both qualified, as the 6-4 and 4-1 wins came against the back-to-back defending league champions and Tufts' biggest rival.
Coach Cheryl Milligan acknowledged the inevitability of errors with a young squad and focused on minimizing their impact by staying collected, nailing down the fundamentals, and getting key outs when it's most important.
"Earlier in the season, coach told us that we're going to make errors, especially as a young team," junior Annie Ross said. "But we'll get experience, and we have to minimize our errors and be the better team. Williams didn't make errors, and we still beat them."
The errors came into play several times during Sunday's games, as the Jumbos held onto a narrow lead for much of the day. The most crucial and dangerous point came during Williams' final at-bat in game two, when two doubles cut into the Tufts lead and rallied the Ephs.
Milligan called her only mound conference of the day to address her infield, which at that point included sophomores Megan Cusick, Mara Dodson and Heather Kleinberger and freshmen Cara Hovhanessian and Megan Foley.
"I told them that if we lost 1-0 in a nail-biter where it was close and someone [on Williams] just made one great play [to win], then that was that," Milligan said. "But if we went out there and said 'Williams had a great season last year, and we couldn't hit Clara Hard,' and played scared and lost because of that, then that wasn't okay."
The pep talk worked, and the Jumbos compiled three quick outs to end the inning and seal the doubleheader sweep.
Cusick picked off three runners and caught one stealing from behind the plate on the day. The first pickoff may have stopped a Williams run in the first inning of the doubleheader, getting a key second out with runners at first and third. In the fifth inning of the second game, Cusick was called for catcher's interference, giving the runner a free pass to first, then recovered immediately, catching the Eph stealing second on the next pitch.
Then, Cusick made the biggest defensive play of the game during the Ephs' final at-bat of the day. With the Ephs gaining momentum and the game on the line, Cusick fired a snap throw to second, picking off Goodman and stifling Williams' momentum.
"It's very, very rare to see [Cusick] play like she isn't sure what's going on," Milligan said. "She had two pickoffs at second, both of which were huge in terms of the outcome. She is blessed with great physical skills, but she also really has ability to put herself in right place at the right time. She plays like an upperclassman."
Sophomore Danielle Lopez was one of many Jumbos to step up with big defensive plays in the clutch. She followed two Tufts fielding errors in the second game with an unassisted double play that ended the inning with two Ephs on base and the cleanup hitter on deck.
"We did make a lot of errors, but we stepped up and came through with a big hit or picked up in some other way," Lopez said. "We were down defensively in some aspects, but we did a great job of staying with it and chipping away, especially in the first game, when we had a ton of errors early on. Usually that takes the wind out of a team, but we really showed that we can make an error and still get up to the plate."
The young Jumbos did that well, accounting for all 16 Tufts hits. In addition to five scoreless innings and five strikeouts, sophomore Erica Bailey went 3-for-4 with three RBI, including a two-run double and her first homerun of the season, a low-flying bullet to center that handed the Jumbos the lead in game two.
Hovhanessian came through with a two-run triple, part of a 3-for-6, two RBI performance, and Lopez was 3-for-6 with three RBI and a monster three-run homer, her fourth of the season. Freshman Roni Herbst connected in both of her at-bats, utilizing her speed with two slaps.
Classmate Samantha Kuhles went 2-for-3, including a leadoff single dropped behind first base that sparked the Jumbos' four-run sixth inning in the first game.
For better or worse, the team's youth defines it, and much of the team's success this season will hinge on the ability of the talented underclassmen to compensate for the errors that will inevitably occur.
