After beating the Williams Ephs 14-0 two weeks ago, the softball team must have been confident heading into its next meeting with its in-state NESCAC rival.
Unfortunately for the Jumbos, the Ephs have come a long way in two weeks.
Tufts dropped both ends of a doubleheader at Williams Saturday, falling to 10-8 on the season. The Jumbos have now lost six of their last eight.
"We're in a slump," junior Heather Kleinberger said. "We have been playing a little better, but our pitching wasn't at its best."
The Jumbos dropped the first game 7-4, and despite jumping out to an early lead in the second game, they fell in the end, as a walk-off two-run homer from senior Katelyn Knox gave the Ephs a 10-8 victory and the doubleheader sweep.
The Jumbos got on the board early to begin the second game. Tufts racked up five runs in the first inning, as Samantha Kuhles got things started with a leadoff double and then scored on a single by freshman Casey Sullivan. Three more hits, two walks and an error by Williams junior Kristen Lemons in left field bolstered the Tufts rally.
In the bottom of the first, sophomore Lauren Gelmetti took the ball for the Jumbos. Gelmetti gave up a leadoff single to sophomore Joey Lye, who stole second and eventually scored on a double by Ephs senior Regine Kim. After surrendering three total hits, two of them doubles, Tufts saw its lead shrink to 5-2.
Both teams were quiet in the second, but got back on the board in the third. The Jumbos tacked on another run with an RBI from Sullivan, while the Ephs rallied for three runs of their own. Gelmetti gave up a leadoff home run to Lye and a two-run shot to Knox, cutting the Jumbos' lead to 6-5.
Freshman Stefanie Tong entered in the fourth, coming back for her second appearance of the day in hopes of preserving the now-shrinking lead, but she was unable to silence Williams' bats.
After a few walks and wild pitches, as well as two errors - one each by freshman first baseman Christy Tinker and classmate right fielder Jenna Robey - Williams tacked on three more runs, taking a 8-6 lead. Tong, however, allowed just one hit in her two-and-a-third innings of work.
"I think [Tong] is a great reliever," Kuhles said. "She has a good knuckleball, and even when the Williams batters knew that it was coming, it's a difficult pitch to hit."
Tufts tied the game in the seventh with a pair of unearned runs coming on an error from shortstop Lye, but the 8-8 deadlock didn't last, as Knox's shot to dead center in the bottom of the inning sent the Jumbos home on a sour note.
Just as in game two, the Jumbos started the first game off quickly, racking up a two-run lead in the first inning. After a double by Sullivan, an error by Lemons, and a clutch single by Tinker, the Jumbos were out in front.
Junior pitcher Erica Bailey was unable to hold onto that lead, however. After walking the bases loaded with one out, she then walked home Williams' first run of the game and gave up an RBI single to Knox to tie it at two. Finally, after handing Williams the lead with a wild pitch, Bailey struck out the next two batters to avoid further trouble.
"She was either walking people or striking them out," Kuhles said of Bailey. "She wasn't getting a lot of the calls that she wanted, mainly because she was trying to hit the corners, but when she hit them, the Williams hitters couldn't hit her."
The Jumbos battled back, however, and tied the game in the second inning with a single by Kleinberger, a sacrifice that advanced her to second, and an RBI single by Kuhles.
Bailey was determined to keep the game close, but after walking the leadoff batter and allowing her to steal second and advance to third on a sacrifice, she ran into trouble, eventually surrendering a double to sophomore Libby Copeland-Halperin, which gave Williams a 4-3 lead.
From that point on, Williams didn't look back. After the second inning, the Jumbos tried their luck with Tong, but she didn't fare much better, giving up three runs in the remaining five innings.
With the losses, the Jumbos fell to 10-8 on the season, and haven't won consecutive games since the squad's spring break trip to California. Tufts' play has been inconsistent, and with nine games in seven days lying ahead, the team needs to find answers quickly.
"We need to improve a lot right now," Kleinberger said. "We're not hitting, pitching or playing like we should be."
The Jumbos take on Bridgewater State in a doubleheader at 3:00 p.m. today, and the nine-game road swing continues from there. A crucial weekend series with Bowdoin awaits this weekend, with the Jumbos needing league victories to improve their NESCAC East record.
