It was deja vu all over again for the Tufts softball team.
Two sets of 6-5, 1-0 losses ended a pair of postseason runs by the Jumbos, one at the hands of the Williams Ephs in the NESCAC Tournament title game on May 7, and another to No. 11 Rowan in the final of the consolation bracket at NCAA Regionals in Camden, NJ on May 13.
Despite the losses, Tufts capped the 2006 season with a trip to the NESCAC Tournament title game, its fifth in six years, and an at-large bid to NCAAs in Camden, N.J, the program's eighth national appearance and first since 2003.
"We had and have the potential to go further than we did, but I'm so proud of what we did do for such a young team," said sophomore Danielle Lopez, who was recently honored with the NESCAC Player of the Year award. "I think next year is going to be even better."
The Jumbos' season ended in the consolation bracket final of Regionals with a 6-5 loss to the Rowan Profs on May 13. The story of the tournament for the Profs was senior pitcher Colleen Oswald, who held off a Jumbo comeback from a six-run deficit on Saturday after throwing a five-hit shutout in the teams' first meeting.
"[Oswald is] a great pitcher, she has great composure on the mound, and I think part of it is her doing her job and saying, 'I just gave up a hit and now I'm going to get three strikeouts,'" Tufts coach Cheryl Milligan said.
Rowan struck first, plating a run in the first and adding five more in the third. The Profs put on six consecutive base runners, and the final blow, a two-RBI double from senior Casey Bartolf, knocked Tufts freshman Lauren Gelmetti out of the game. Sophomore Erica Bailey came in for the final two outs of the inning and followed that with four innings of scoreless relief, but the damage had already been done.
The Jumbos didn't put a single runner on base through three innings, but they answered the Rowan rally in the top of the fourth. Freshman Samantha Kuhles got the Jumbos' first hit off Oswald, an infield single, and reached second on an error. After doubles from Lopez and freshman Cara Hovhanessian and an RBI single from Bailey, the Rowan lead was down to three.
Sophomore catcher Megan Cusick then blasted a two-out, two-run home run to pull the Jumbos within one, but Oswald stopped the bleeding by striking out junior Annie Ross to end the inning.
After the offensive fireworks displays, the game returned to the pitcher's duel that was expected after the 1-0 score of the first game. With Rowan maintaining a fragile 6-5 lead, both Oswald and Bailey pitched magnificently; neither allowed a runner past second base for the remainder of the game. The score remained unchanged, and the Profs advanced to the finals as the Jumbos headed home.
"It would have been easy to die, quit a little and walk away 6-0 and say 'we didn't have our best that game, and we could have done better,'" Milligan said. "While I still think we could have done better, to have such a young team show up to play even after giving up six 'bad' runs, shows character and pride."
The Jumbos reached the consolation final with a 3-0 win over Wilkes earlier that afternoon in the double-elimination tournament, battling back in the loser's bracket after their first loss to Rowan. A strong mound showing from senior co-captain Sarah Conroy held the Colonels scoreless as a few key hits moved the Jumbo runners around.
With Wilkes junior pitcher Lauren Agresti riding a shutout in the bottom of the fifth, freshman outfielder Maya Ripecky crushed a pitch over the left field fence for a 1-0 Tufts lead. A two-RBI single from Bailey in the third added two more, which was more than enough for Conroy, who turned in a three-hit shutout for the win.
Tufts suffered its first loss of the tournament two days earlier, falling to Rowan 1-0 on Thursday. Oswald again faced off with Bailey, who turned in eight strikeouts, several that diffused dangerous situations, to keep the Jumbos in the game. But the Tufts bats offered no support, and Bailey took her second 1-0 loss of the postseason.
"It's a little frustrating as a pitcher when you hold a team to one or two runs and still lose," said Bailey, who was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team along with Kuhles. "I think that's what we really need to work on for next year; you need to have that run support, because you can't win if you can't score."
Of all Jumbos pitchers, Bailey was hurt most by Tufts' inconsistent run support in the 2006 season. While the Jumbos scored 5.75 runs per game in the regular season, they scored only 3.8 when Bailey was on the mound in the regular season, and gave Bailey only 2.05 runs per game in her three postseason appearances. In defense of the Tufts bats, Bailey usually took the mound against the opposing team's ace, including several of the best pitchers in the country.
The lone Rowan run in Thursday's game came on a Bartolf RBI single that knocked around a Bailey walk. The inning could have been far worse for the Jumbos, as Bailey found herself with no outs and the bases loaded. Recovering from a shaky inning, she delivered her first two strikeouts of the day to get out of the inning down only one.
The Jumbos threatened at their next at-bat, loading up the bases up with two outs and Bailey at the plate with a chance to carry over her momentum from the field. But the sophomore failed to help her own cause, grounding out to the pitcher to end the inning.
Tufts had one last chance in the sixth when Bailey led off with a double that came up just inches short of being a game-tying home run. But the promising situation deteriorated quickly, when sophomore third baseman Kristin Wallace caught freshman pinch runner Roni Herbst off the bag at second to double up a line drive from sophomore Mara Dodson and end the inning.
"We saw really good pitching, but I don't think it was pitching that we couldn't handle," Lopez said. "We were just having trouble putting hits together. We had runners on base and couldn't bring them in."
Tufts got timely hitting in the opening contest of Nationals, rallying back against Wilkes from a 2-0 deficit to grab a 4-3 win. Down 2-0 in the fourth, a bunt single by freshman Laura Chapman and a Lopez double set up a rally that would eventually plate four runs. This was just enough for senior Julia Brenta, who went five innings while giving up three runs and striking out three. Gelmetti came in for two innings of scoreless relief to get the save.
The Jumbos' tournament bid came on the heels of their runner-up finish in the NESCAC Tournament. They fell twice to Williams in the tournament, 1-0 in the first game and 6-5 in the title game. The 6-5 game put the Jumbos on the wrong end of a comeback, as they carried a 5-1 lead going into the third. The Ephs plated five two-out runs to win their third straight NESCAC title.
