Tufts softball took on Trinity in a doubleheader on Friday and went up against Colby at home on Saturday.
On Friday morning, the Jumbos headed down to Hartford, Conn., to take on the Bantams. The first two innings saw both teams stand their ground defensively, with graduate student pitcher Sophia DiCocco taking care of business on the mound.
First-year infielder Cat Kawabe got the bats going in the top of the third inning with a single up the left side of the infield. From there, Tufts capitalized on a Trinity error that allowed graduate student infielder Bela Jimenez to get on base. A monster double by junior utility player Kaitlyn Perucci scored two, and the Jumbos were hungry for more.
Back out on the field, the Bantams kept getting beaten at the hands of the ace southpaw DiCocco, who struck out two in the bottom of the third.
It only took five innings for Tufts to walk away from the first game with a win, as a colossal fifth inning brought the score to 9–0 and led to a mercy rule. Senior outfielder Lindsay Neumann wasted no time, leading off the fifth inning with a single. From there, the Jumbos teed off, batting around the lineup with plenty of slugging included.
Kawabe smacked a double down the left field line, and shortly after, Perucci hit a two-run home run. Junior utility player Lauryn Horita and junior outfielder Madi Sewell had doubles, and several singles in between created seven runs for which Trinity would have no answer.
Sewell discussed the team’s offensive goals and the importance of “hitting the ball hard [and] taking good offensive swings.” Throughout both games, there were more than enough extra-base hits to show for their efforts.
DiCocco went for a complete game shutout and gave up only one hit, putting on a truly dominant performance.
Sewell had nothing but praise for the Jumbo pitching staff, stating that a good defensive strategy included “just letting Cocco do what she does best.”
In the game that followed, both sides were relatively quiet in the first inning once again, stringing together a few hits but not enough to get a run across.
For the Jumbos, however, it was not a question of if they would score, but when.
They quickly scored two runs in the second and kept the scoring rolling into the third. After senior catcher Keriann Slayton got on base with a walk to start the top of the third, Horita continued a powerhouse hitting day with a home run that got the Jumbos two additional runs. Junior infielder Haley Leimbach and Sewell maintained the momentum with consecutive singles, but they would be held up in scoring position as Trinity got out of the inning before any more damage could be done.
Senior Lacy Chilek held it down on the mound, and after a quick third inning, the Jumbos got right back to it on offense in the fourth. With Perucci at the plate, she pieced a line drive into center field to score Jimenez, and the Jumbos continued to heat up. Sophomore third baseman Heaven Oliva walked, and Horita hit another double to blow open the inning and score both.
Chilek began to show fatigue ever so slightly in the bottom of the fourth, allowing two runs to score. Knowing that the bullpen had her back, sophomore Fallon O’Connor entered in relief and stopped the bleeding that inning.
The Bantams put on another run in the bottom of the fifth after a quiet inning from the Jumbos’ bats. They wouldn’t stay quiet for long, though, as they got back to work in the top of the sixth, with a couple of strung-together singles bringing in two runs, leaving no doubt on the field that they were the dominant squad that day.
On the rubber, O’Connor only gave up four hits and one run, and the bats brought in two more in the sixth. The seventh calmed back down, but luckily, Tufts had done more than enough to get the job done.
“I think we’re doing a really good job with our energy this season,” Sewell said, attributing their success to the high level of engagement that every member of the team showed.
Tufts softball is well ahead of the rest of the pack in conference rankings, leading the conference with an 11–3 NESCAC record. This weekend pushed their separation from the pack further, as they stacked on three wins in four games.
Sewell also commended her teammates for “bouncing back from that loss to Colby” and “coming out and getting a good win.” The Jumbos split their series against the Mules, making it their only loss of the entire weekend.
The upcoming weekend will see Tufts match up against Hamilton College, and they have plenty of momentum heading into the series. If the offense and defense continue to work together as they have done this past week, they will undoubtedly continue their supremacy in the NESCAC.
