Senior co-captain pitcher Miya Warner said, "The wins were huge. Wesleyan is getting better every year, so they have the capacity to take games from the top-level NESCAC teams, so taking two from them was huge. There are so few games that matter for our postseason, and these are two of them."
Leading the way for the team as a whole and on defense in particular was, as usual, Warner, who picked up her seventh and eighth wins of the season in Middletown, Conn. Warner shut down the Cardinal offense in game one, going the distance for the Jeffs and giving up two hits while striking out 10 and walking none.
The offense took some time to wake up, leaving the game knotted at 0-0 after four innings. The tides turned in a three-run fifth inning. Catcher Elizabeth Neckes '08, who is batting a team-leading incredible .559, led off with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by third baseman Caroline Polales '07. Pinch hitter Emily Bulzarik '09 singled up the middle to advance Neckes and increase the pressure on Wesleyan; another single by second baseman Annalise Rodli '07 loaded up the base.
After a pop-up led to the second out of the inning, first baseman Laura Trigeiro '06, showed why she has been Amherst's most consistent hitter over the past three seasons. With the bases loaded and two outs, Trigeiro smashed the ball to right field; the right fielder was unable to handle it, and the ball rolled to the fence, leaving Trigeiro on third with two runs scored. The inning ended with a strikeout, but the Jeffs had claimed the momentum for good. Amherst added one run in the sixth courtesy of a Neckes RBI and three more in the seventh in an impressive feat of run production (three runs off just one hit) to give Warner some cushion.
Unfortunately, the next game did not go quite as smoothly, in terms of both the weather and Amherst's play. Rainy weather, which made the ball slippery and caused a delay of game, coupled with poor fielding, victimized pitcher Samantha Miller '07, who gave up five unearned runs in two and a third innings before yielding to Warner.
Meanwhile, the Jeff offense took advantage of four wild pitches, a passed ball and singles from Neckes, designated hitter Ralina Shaw '08 and left fielder Rachel Hoerger '06 to score five runs in the top of the third. The Cardinals answered back with a five-run inning of their own, but the Jeffs kept their composure.
"People never lost confidence in the fact that we were going to win the game," said Hoerger.
Down 6-7 entering the sixth inning, a lead-off walk to Hoerger sparked a Jeff rally. Back-to-back singles by Rodli and shortstop Lindsey Harrington '09, followed by a Trigeiro sacrifice fly and a passed ball scored three runs, and Warner shut down the Cardinal offense for the final two innings to snatch her second win of the afternoon.
In fact, it was Warner's fourth win of the week, as she earned both victories for Amherst in Wednesday's doubleheader sweep of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The first game against the Engineers was Amherst's first extra-inning game of the season; the Jeffs broke a scoreless pitchers' duel in the bottom of the eighth when Hoerger bunted Bulzarik (who began the inning on second base because of the international tiebreaker rule) over to third, and Rodli knocked in the run on an infield error.
The second game looked to be a repeat of the first, with the score tied up at 1-1 going into the bottom of the sixth. However, the Jeffs broke the game open in the second half of the inning, utilizing singles by center fielder Julia Cummings '09, Trigeiro, Neckes, right fielder Kelly King '08 and Polales as well as three Engineer errors.
The four wins on the week bring Amherst's record to 9-4 on the season; at this time last year, the Jeffs were 6-6-1. The addition of six first-years is one ingredient to the team's early season success, as is improved play by veterans.
"Our hitting's better, and our line-up's deeper," said Warner. "The hitting's probably the biggest thing. I think we can attribute our improved offense to a combination of things-the returners have been stepping up in clutch situations, Neckes has been amazing, and the [first-years] have made our line-up a lot more solid all the way through."
Added Hoerger, "The underclassmen have really stepped up and carried us at times when the upperclassmen have struggled."
Both upper- and underclassmen will need to step up on Saturday when Amherst hosts Middlebury College at 1 p.m.
"If we want to go anywhere in NESCACs, we absolutely have to beat them," said Hoerger. "They've always had a good program, and they're a team in the past couple years that we've had trouble with. Last year we split with them, and given this year's team, if we play to our potential we can definitely take both."
NESCAC Notes
Tufts University swept Williams College on Sunday in a nonconference doubleheader at Tufts. In NESCAC West action, Middlebury beat Hamilton College twice. Middlebury and Amherst are tied for first place in the West division.