The women’s softball team has played eight games in the past seven days as their season begins to wind down. Once again, the Jeffs had a mixed bag of results—splitting their series against Smith College, losing two out of three games to Wesleyan College, and coming away with a necessary victory at home against Middlebury College. If the Jeffs want to advance to the NESCAC Tournament, they will need to sweep the upcoming series against archrival Williams College.
“Mentally and physically, we are ready to take on this challenge,” said sophomore out-fielder Jackie Tyler. “We have been playing with confidence and authority out on the diamond, and we will bring that same attitude to our games next weekend.”
Amherst returned home last Wednesday to face non-conference, Pioneer Valley rival Smith in a double-header. The Jeffs exhibited solid play in the first game of the series, but could not quiet Smith’s bats in the second and seventh innings. Smith eventually scored eight of its nine runs to win the first game 9-3. In the second game, Amherst would come back in stellar form, led by junior pitcher Maddie Tamagni. Tamagni earned the win to save the Jeffs with a 3-2 overall victory. Emily Neill ’10 also took advantage of her opponents’ mistakes, using them to advance around the bases and scoring two out of three Amherst runs.
The large number of games seemed to affect the Jeffs as they opened up play at home against the Wesleyan Cardinals to begin a three-game series. The Jeffs were down early when they allowed five runs—all unearned—in the top of the second inning. Wesleyan looked to be dominant, racking up 16 hits compared to seven for the home team.
The Jeffs knew they had to eliminate their fielding errors and be aggressive at the plate if they wanted to contend with the Cardinals as they traveled to Wesleyan for the final two games of the series. And the Jeffs did just that, winning a nail-biter of a second game.
Though both pitchers threw well in the top half of the double-header at Wesleyan, the Jeffs were able to capitalize off of their hits, scoring the sole run of the game in the top half of the fourth inning. Neill led off the inning with hard-hit single into left field, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and was driven in by junior in fielder Emily Bularzik’s single to right-center field. Amherst pitcher Alex Chang-Graham ’10 gave up only five hits and two walks in seven innings of play to earn her sixth win of the season.
Unfortunately, Amherst would not repeat in the second game of the day, losing an important conference game by a score of 9-3. The Jeffs had trouble getting on base as Wesleyan’s pitcher allowed only five hits and struck out six.
The Jeffs returned home on Sunday to face-off against NESCAC foe Middlebury in a game that would turn out to be one of the most exciting of the season. The Panthers jumped into the lead in the top of the first inning, scoring two runs off of three hits. The Jeffs scored only one run in the next six innings of play, and just when the Amherst fans began to lose hope, the Jeffs pulled out some late-game heroics. Bularzik and Tyler both singled in the bottom of the seventh to set the stage for senior tri-captain Liz Neckes to hit a walk-off, RBI single to give Amherst the victory and keep the Jeffs’ play-off hopes alive.
It was defense that kept Amherst in the game. “I think our defense did a great job in limiting Middlebury’s offense,” said Chang-Graham. “Even though they usually got a runner on base, the defense stayed composed and made great plays to get us out of the inning.”
“In order to bring our A-game next weekend against Williams,” said Tyler, “we need to be aggressive with the bats early in the game, and play solid defense in the field for seven innings.”
In their doubleheader against Bates yesterday, the Jeffs displayed both strong defense and strong hitting. In game one, Amherst fell 2-1, bur received another strong pitching performance from Chang-Graham. In the second game the Jeffs bats woke up big time, as they piled up a total of 17 hits in their 13-5 victory. The Jeffs infield led the way offensively, driving in nine of the runs. Senior hurler Samantha Miller pitched five strong innings in the victory.