Instead of throwing on their bathing suits and heading for the beaches like many of their classmates over spring break, the Jumbos put on their uniforms and headed for the softball diamonds of Orange, California, where they participated in the Sun West Tournament. During the weeklong trip Tufts compiled a 7-5 mark against top-notch competition, including a victory over NESCAC rival Williams.
Although the team finished only two games over .500 during the 12-game west coast swing, team members deemed it a success Many of the California teams had been playing ball for two or three weeks prior to the tournament, while the tournament represented the Jumbos' first action of the regular season.
"I thought we really showed a lot of improvement over the week," sophomore outfielder Julie Fox said. "We started out rough especially with our defense. I think [that was the case] in the games that we lost.. We were making mental mistakes. It's the first week of our season so we went through some of those."
One of the trip's more interesting games came last Monday, a matchup against Williams in the Jumbos' second game of the tournament. During the game, each Jumbo starter had at least one hit and senior co-captain Jodie Moreau pitched a complete game one hitter en route to an 8-0 victory. The win was the first of six that Moreau recorded in California.
Before the game, coach Kris Talon had made it clear to the Jumbos that Williams was gunning for them. "Prior to that game our coach brought out a paper from Western Mass. and it said their whole season kind of hinged on beating us," senior shortstop Jen Mackey said. "We had great pitching by [Moreau] in that game. I think everyone on the team got a hit. It was great to go out and rumble with them. It showed them we are back this year."
Last year, Tufts lost to Williams in California but was able to exact revenge by defeating them in the NESCAC playoffs. "We really wanted to beat them but we also know that anything can happen," Fox said. "It seems like Williams is aiming for us. We were just treating that game like a normal one. Coach said that teams are going to be aiming for us. To go in there knowing that Williams wanted it so bad and we slaughtered them was a good feeling."
Talon agreed that the game against Williams was important but stressed that the Jumbos do not do anything differently against them than against other opponents. "We always like to beat Williams, however, we like to play our own game - hit well, get consistent pitching and do the little things right on defense - no matter who we are playing," she said. "We know we are the top team in the NESCAC and we have a bullseye on our back."
While the win over Williams in the second game of the tournament looked nearly perfect on paper for the Jumbos, some of the other games did not play out quite as nicely. This was especially obvious in tough losses to such opponents as Carlton on March 19 and Plattsburgh on March 22.
The showdown with Carlton turned into a 16-12 slugfest, in which the Jumbos did not play the fundamentally sound ball that has been a staple of their success in recent years. Sophomore Kasey Lindsey gave up 11 runs, eight of them earned, in three innings of work. Freshman Caroline Grieco surrendered five runs in two innings. While the duo's stats for the game were far from impressive, teammates felt the loss was not a result of poor pitching but rather poor defense.
"We lost a ridiculous game to Carlton," Fox said. "We have to get our defense down. We have to support our pitchers."
Defense was once again a problem in the 3-2 loss to Plattsburgh. During that game Lindsey was also on the mound for the Jumbos, and this time she looked more in sync than the game against Carlton. In a complete game effort, Lindsey allowed no earned runs, but gave up three as the result of errors in the field. The defensive problems came to light in the third inning of the contest when senior co-captain/second baseman Emily Ferrazza committed two errors and junior catcher Lis Drake committed a passed ball - a combination that lead to two unearned runs in the inning.
Mackey said that tight defense becomes especially important when pitchers other than Moreau are on the mound because they don't overpower hitters in the same way that the senior co-captain does.
"With [Moreau] she is a real power pitcher and when we make a few mistakes she can bounce back. It was us not coming through for [the other pitchers]. They showed some great poise out there. It's just our job to step up. I'm confident in them being back up pitchers."
"One of our big goals was to learn more about the rest of the pitchers, which we did," Talon said. "We may or may not designate a consistent number two starter, but [Grieco] had two strong outings and [Lindsey] did well in our 3-2 loss to Plattsburgh - the only game in which we really didn't hit at all."
While the team is still working to get comfortable defensively - as demonstrated by the 17 errors that it committed in 12 games of action - offensively, the squad seemed to heat up in the California sun.
Mackey led the way with a .533 average, a .684 slugging percentage, a whopping on base percentage of .630, and also ranked first on the team in runs scored (14) and hits (21). Freshman Courtney Bongiolatti, junior Tiffany Trahan, Drake, and Fox all batted over .330 for the tournament. Drake and Trahan led the team in RBIs with 14 and 13, respectively.
Now, back in New England, the team is preparing for the commencement of its NESCAC season on Saturday in a 1 p.m. doubleheader against Trinity.
"After going out [to California] and being successful against some really big name teams it gave us a lot of confidence and now that we are back here we are going to play strong against our competition," Mackey said. "I think we are going to be ready."
