Grieco, Swidler to lead young pitching staff

Senior tri-captain Julie Fox is going home. After three years of playing third base for the Jumbos, Fox will be behind the plate regularly for Tufts for the first time since high school. The other half of the proverbial battery consists of three strong freshmen and four returning pitchers who each logged more than 30 innings last year.

Junior Caroline Grieco led the team with a 1.74 ERA last year as a sophomore and tied then junior Pam Swidler with nine wins. Grieco accomplished all this while battling a torn ligament in her elbow for much of the season, but her arm troubles are now behind her. Both Swidler and Grieco are looking forward to this season despite the challenges that will arise with a new catcher.

"I will definitely miss Drake," Grieco said, "but Julie is a smart softball player."

Fox has been working with many of the pitchers during the off-season to prepare for her new position. Using her high school experience, she has helped catch in previous winters, but this year she is making sure she knows what her pitchers use as strikeout pitches and what they are most comfortable throwing. Fox is confident in their abilities.

"Our returning pitchers really proved themselves last season," Fox said. Sophomore hurlers Julia Brenta and Sarah Conroy established themselves as freshmen in 2003, each recording four wins and playing important roles in the playoffs. This season's rookie pitchers, Lauren Ebstein, Caite White, and Lindsay Evans, have looked promising in the first few weeks of practice as well.

"They're working with the pitching coach," Swidler said. "It can be hard to adjust to college pitching, but they're doing really well."

The depth added by the three additional freshmen will make it more difficult to divide pitching duties. Grieco, Swidler, Brenta, and Conroy are accustomed to pitching lots of innings and will have to adjust to spending less time in the circle.

"If all goes well, nobody will have to come out of the bullpen ever," coach Cheryl Milligan said. "But it's nice to know that I always have someone ten minutes away from being ready if need be."

"We have a lot of good pitchers" Swidler added, "and I'm curious to see how everything is going to work out."

If having too many good pitchers is the pitching staff's biggest problem, then they are sure to improve on last year's season in which they tied for third in the NESCAC ERA standings with a 2.41 mark. The pitchers all want to do more than improve their ERA's and win/loss records; they want to win their fourth straight NESCAC championship.

"We're going to do really well pitching and catching," Grieco said. "I think the whole team will do really well [too]."