The Jeffs had two chances against Westfield State University last Wednesday and took advantage of both. After failing to sweep three previous doubleheaders, the softball team won both of its contests against the Owls, coming from behind in each and improving to 14-5 on the season. Though the games do not count towards the Jeffs’ NESCAC standing, the team showed that even in come-from-behind situations it can emerge victorious.
The first game began as a pitching duel. Westfield State struck first in the opening inning. The Jeffs’ first run came when first-year catcher Annemarie Iker led off the inning with a double. Iker scored on an error to tie up the game. After three more scoreless innings, the game was headed for extra innings. Westfield State took a one-run lead once more in the top of the eighth, but the Jeffs weren’t finished. Two errors by their opponents allowed Amherst to score two more runs to win the game.
“We won the first game against Westfield because our defense was better than theirs,” said senior outfielder Emily Bularzik. “We faced a very good pitcher, and weren’t hitting a ton, but we stayed in the game with defense and managed to get runs across any way we could. We’re a team that usually hits a lot, but we also need to be able to compete when the bats aren’t there, and we proved that we can.”
Once again the Jeffs found themselves behind in their second match-up with Westfield State as the opposition took a 2-0 lead in the top of the sixth. This time Amherst was quick to respond, scoring five runs in the bottom of the inning off of three singles and a homerun by catcher Steph Clegg ’12.
Sophomore pitcher Alex Chang-Graham allowed only two hits in 9.2 innings of pitching while Iker allowed two hits in the first contest and rookie shortstop Carly Dudzik tallied two hits in the second. Amherst committed no errors compared to Westfield State’s four errors.
Looking forward, the Jeffs need to continue to hit well and to be aggressive at the plate, said Chang-Graham. “We’re a strong hitting team and we do better when we have a lot of games to keep the momentum going. Unfortunately, there’s been a lot of cancelled and rescheduled games due to weather so our major challenge will be keeping our hitting going during the week for our weekend NESCAC games.”
Currently ranked second in the NESCAC West division, the Jeffs are almost halfway through their regular season. With Wesleyan University, their toughest competition, behind them, the Jeffs need to maintain their confidence and win the majority of their coming games.
“We have to win the close games,” said Bularzik. “We’ve won a lot of games with our hitting, but there are teams out there that are going to make some great plays against us. We need to find ways to score runs when hard hits are getting caught or when the hitting just isn’t there, and we’re going to do that by moving runners around the bases with smart at-bats and good base running. Defense is also crucial. We have very solid fielders in every position, and we’ve been making some great plays out there. Our pitching has been really impressive all season, and if we can support our pitchers by continuing the defense and hitting we’re capable of, we have a great shot at making NESCACs.”