Tufts softball ended their regular season on a high note with three consecutive shutouts of Colby College this weekend, boosting their final record to 35-3. The seventh-ranked Jumbos were a perfect 12-0 against NESCAC East opponents for the second straight year.
Excellent pitching performances from sophomore Allyson Fournier and seniors Rebecca DiBiase and Aly Moskowitz, all of whom delivered complete game shutouts, highlighted the weekend's wins.
Fournier set the tone by firing her second straight no-hitter in Friday's series opener, an 8-0 Tufts win. Fournier's bid for a perfect game was spoiled in the top of the sixth when Colby's leadoff batter reached base on a fielding error, forcing her to settle for her fourth no-hitter of the season. She did, however, fan 16 of the 19 batters she faced, upping her season strikeout total to 175 and lowering her ERA to 0.24. The Jumbos inflicted most of their damage with a five-run third inning ignited by sophomore Michelle Cooprider's solo home run.
Tufts celebrated Senior Day on Saturday, winning both games of their doubleheader. The Jumbos took the first game 2-0 behind DiBiase's shutout, as the senior struck out seven while yielding just one walk and four hits. Senior tri-captain Emily Beinecke single-handedly supplied most of Tufts' offense, scoring both Jumbo runs as part of her 3-for-3 day at the plate.
"Senior Day was great," Beinecke said. "There were definitely a lot of nerves involved playing in front of family and friends, but our focus was to play our game. We also wanted to defend our field in the last home games of the season."
Beinecke continued her heavy hitting in the season finale, going 3-for-3 again and slamming a three-run homer her first time up. Aided by a pair of Colby errors, Tufts built its lead to 7-0 by scoring four unearned runs in the fourth. The Jumbos cruised from there as Moskowitz put the finishing touches on her six-hit shutout, thereby extending the Jumbos' winning streak against NESCAC East opponents to 25 straight wins dating back to 2011.
"I'm so proud to be a part of it," said Beinecke. "It's something we've been working on all four years I've been here. Players from every year contributed, and I'm very impressed by the maturity level of the younger players."
The conference champions will get some much-deserved rest before they begin postseason play on Friday against Wesleyan University. Until then, they plan on using their days off to get healthy and prepare for the playoffs.
"We have a lot of things to work on, like putting down bunts and doing the little things," DiBiase said. "We've been working a lot on base running because pitching is better in the playoffs, so we're going to try to get as many extra bases as we can. Everyone's on the same page and we all know what we have to do."
