If March is a barometer for spring seasons, the softball team's early reading is in: There is still work to do.
The nationally ranked No. 15 Jumbos finished above .500 but below expectations at the Sun West Tournament in Orange, Calif. The team's first five games were all wins, including a mercy-run rout over No. 4 St. Thomas.
But the Jumbos stumbled the rest of the way, going 2-5 as the result of untimely hitting and error-prone defense. They return east with a 7-5 record, around their historical par against the stiff competition at Sun West, but dissatisfied with their play.
"Coming out above .500 is good, but not when you expect to be close to 12-0," said junior Laura Chapman, who hit .368 during the break. "The wins were wins - can't say they were all good - and the losses were bad. We have a really strong, talented and driven team, so it's hard not to do as well as expected."
Chapman's bat was just one of many active ones; seven Jumbos return from the break hitting better than .350. Sophomore Casey Sullivan, the 2007 Rookie of the Year, hit .483 with two home runs and 13 RBI after arriving late from Pennsylvania, where she played with the women's basketball team in the NCAA Div. III Tournament quarterfinals.
Classmate Christy Tinker hit .500 in 28 at-bats, and senior co-captain Danielle Lopez, the 2006 NESCAC Player of the Year who missed last season with a torn ACL, pounded four doubles and a team-leading 14 RBI.
While those bats calmed down as the week went on and often fell flat with runners in scoring position, the team's second-half slide was mostly the result of its defense.
In three of the Jumbos' five losses, they surrendered the lead in the final inning. In four losses that were decided by a combined six runs, the Jumbos gave up 11 unearned runs on 12 errors.
"This was just us not playing well; our errors were the little things we should know how to do," junior Allison Drobiarz said. "We still made the spectacular plays that make your jaw drop, but we didn't make the basic plays."
The turning point of the Jumbos' West Coast stint came on Wednesday. An all-around solid win over St. Thomas showed the Jumbos at their best. But a loss to NESCAC rival Williams in the afternoon sent the team on a 2-4 slide, with an imperfect storm of sloppy defense, late-game breakdowns and missed offensive opportunities.
"Coach [Cheryl Milligan] always says you have to do two out of three things to win: good hitting, good defense and good pitching," senior Heather Kleinberger said. "We weren't getting two of those three most games."
The Jumbos entered Wednesday's contests undefeated at 4-0 and fresh off two errorless games and two mercy-rule wins. They had pounded the only nationally-ranked team they had faced, No. 23 Central, their bats were on fire and their pitching, while not invincible, had already delivered two complete games.
The Jumbos played nearly flawless softball against No. 4 St. Thomas, national champions twice in the past four years. Tufts won 12-4 in five innings to give the Tommies their first mercy-run loss in eight years, spanning 337 games.
Junior Lauren Gelmetti put in a solid four innings on the mound, freshman Izzie Santone pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief and the Jumbos hit nearly .500 as a team. The win began with a leadoff double by one of the team's go-to bats, junior and NESCAC Player of the Week Samantha Kuhles (.474, six doubles, 14 RBI over the break), and ended when classmate Maya Ripecky hit her ninth career home run to put the Jumbos up by eight and end the game early.
But in the afternoon, an inexplicable loss to regional and conference foe Williams was a sobering gut-check from a longtime rival. The Tufts-Williams rivalry is the NESCAC's biggest, and for the first time since 2004, the Jumbos came in with the historical edge, courtesy of last year's conference championship.
But the watertight play of the morning's game was nowhere to be found. Two errors led to a pair of unearned runs and the Jumbos had just three hits through four innings, letting Williams hang just close enough for a comeback. The Ephs did just that in the top of the seventh, pouring in five runs on seven hits to steal the win, 7-6.
"Beating St. Thomas was a huge deal, but after losing to Williams, it didn't matter any more," Chapman said.
"Our team has never beaten St. Thomas and we knew it was going to take a perfect game, that we weren't going to be able make four errors and get away with it," senior Heather Kleinberger said. "And we did it. We were on cloud nine and somehow it just disappeared. We had just run-ruled the No. 4 team in the country, and then out against Williams and couldn't hit."
The Jumbos never regained their balance. They finished the tournament with a pair of wins over La Sierra and St. Mary's and four losses, including a 16-6 pounding by St. Thomas on Thursday. In their final game, a 6-5 loss to Cal State San Marcos, the Jumbos committed five errors, including one in the bottom of the seventh that set up the Cougars' winning run.
Four pitchers got the starting nod for the Jumbos: Gelmetti, sophomore Stephanie Tong and freshmen Kim Miner and Santone. All four turned in a complete game apiece but took their share of tough outings.
"Our pitchers did a lot better than their records show...When the defense isn't making plays, the pitchers work harder and see batters more times then they should have to," Kleinberger said. "It was a combination, and there's room for improvement on both ends."
While they are disappointed, the Jumbos emerged from the toughest segment of their schedule above .500 and with a look at several teams that they may see again in the postseason.
"The only good thing that came out of this weekend is that we proved we can play with every team in this country," Lopez said. "We're disappointed, but there is no reason to come out of this weekend thinking we won't make it to the World Series."
