After returning from a perfect spring break trip, the nationally ranked No. 9 softball team didn't need the California sun to keep it hot, sweeping the 2-9 Bates Bobcats in dominant fashion over the weekend by winning three shortened five-inning games. The trio of wins helped Tufts move to 15-0 on the season and stay undefeated following the trip to the Golden State.
On Saturday, the offense broke out for its largest run total of the season thus far in the second game of the doubleheader. Every Jumbo who registered an at-bat had a hit in the 14-5 win.
"I think a lot of us are focusing on doing the little things right at the plate," senior second baseman Danielle Lopez said. "At practice, we spend a lot of time hitting -- going over the fundamentals and keeping everything sound. It is nice to see that everyone is being patient and hitting pitches that they can hit well; it just shows how much hard work we have put in."
Senior right fielder Maya Ripecky, the reigning NESCAC Player of the Week, continued her hot hitting, knocking home the first run of the game with an RBI single in the first. Lopez provided the fireworks, smacking her second home run of the day to drive in three runs for Tufts and give her team the early 4-0 lead.
The Bobcats did their best to make the game interesting, as they equaled their run output from the first two games. Bates scored two unearned runs in the second off junior Stefanie Tong after back-to-back errors by the pitcher and senior quad-captain catcher Cara Hovhanessian.
The Jumbos' bats, however, ensured that there would be no upset. Freshman first baseman Lena Cantone provided some spark with RBI doubles in both the second and third inning as Tufts stretched its lead out to an 8-2 advantage.
Bates had one last hurrah, almost clawing back into the game in the fourth. Tong walked in one run with the bases loaded, and sophomore Izzie Santone, coming on in relief, hit freshman left fielder Karen Ullman with a pitch to cut the lead to 8-4 with no outs and the bases still juiced. The Tufts defense then came up big with a strikeout followed by a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
"It was important to stop them from getting a couple more runs then they already had because the closer you make the game, the harder it is to get back on top," Santone said. "Because we shut them down so efficiently at the end of that inning, it gave us the momentum to get the more runs at the end of that inning and the next."
The Jumbos poured it on in the fifth with six runs to force their third mercy-rule win of the weekend. First-years led the way, as Mira Lieman-Sifry hit a two-run double and Cantone added her third RBI double of the game. Sophomore catcher Julia Silberman iced the game with a walk-off two-run shot over the center-field fence. It was her only at-bat of the weekend.
The first game of the Saturday doubleheader was not as close, as senior pitcher Lauren Gelmetti allowed just one run over five innings in a 9-1 win. The Jumbos found a variety of ways to manufacture runs in the game, starting with a double steal in the second inning with senior quad-captain center fielder Laura Chapman taking second and Lopez crossing the plate.
Tufts opened things up in the third with four runs. Hovhanessian scored on a wild pitch by Bobcats freshman Kristin Finn, Ripecky then hit an RBI double, and Lopez capped it off with her first home run of the day, a two-run shot.
The one blemish for Gelmetti came on a solo homer from senior Stacia Saniuk in the fourth, but a Hovhanessian homer in the bottom of the inning got that run back quickly, and three runs in the fifth sealed it for Tufts.
Friday's game was both the NESCAC and home opener for the Jumbos, but there was little rust from their week off as they earned a 9-1 win.
"I think that is a testament to how experienced this team is and how veteran this team is," Lopez said. "Last year we came back and it was two weeks before we played, so I think we were really excited that we could stay outside to practice and hit the first weekend hard and play well."
The Bobcats had trouble solving Santone, last week's NESCAC Pitcher of the Week, who allowed just one hit in the first four innings. Bates' lone run came in the fifth on a fielder's choice after a bunt single had brought the runner to third. The offense helped Santone by putting up runs early and often, as the Jumbos would in all three games of the series.
"Team-wise, it creates a sort of atmosphere that it makes the rest of the game so much easier if you get that big lead in the first few innings," Santone said. "Not that you lose your concentration, but it gives you that little bit of a sigh of relief that makes playing the game less stressful.
"On the mound, it is unbelievable how much pressure is lifted off you when your team gets runs at the beginning of the game," she added.
The Jumbos quickly scored four runs in the first, highlighted by a two-run double from Ripecky. Sloppy play from the Bobcats, including three errors and three wild pitches, led to the other five runs on the day for Tufts.
The Jumbos will swing right back into action today with a non-conference double-header against Springfield. It starts a stretch of eight games in seven days that includes games against Trinity and Western Connecticut, two teams that handed Tufts losses last season.
"I think the biggest thing is we have to be as consistent as possible," Lopez said. "We need to approach every game the same and sustain our stamina both physically and mentally. I think California prepared us for the kind of schedule we have this year.
"We are stronger and tougher than we have ever been physical-wise," Lopez continued. "I have heard it a few times in the locker room -- people can't believe how much better we are physically this season. So I don't think there is any reason why we won't be able to sustain ourselves over this week."
