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Brandeis finished its productive season on a high note earlier this week with three straight wins. Since losing five straight games at the beginning of vacation, Brandeis has won a game on each day that they played, going a total seven and two to finish the season at 20-23.

According to Coach Sullivan, the womens softball team won twenty games this season for the first time in many years. We more than doubled our wins from last year.

Wednesday featured the final home game for three graduating seniors: Elissa Glucksman 06, Mari Levine 06, and Bri Smith 06. A ceremony before the game honored the three. In the game against Salve Regina University, all three had key contributions to victory. Smith, who used to pitch for Brandeis, was on the mound for the first inning and retired the side 1-2-3. Sophomore Kaitlin Streilein 08 pitched the remaining six innings, giving up only two runs, one earned, and four hits.

Glucksman scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning on a bloop base-hit in front of the second baseman. Glucksman knocked the ball out of the catchers glove while heading for home to score. In the bottom of the third inning, Levine hit a home run over the left field fence in almost the same spot that Natalie Volpe 08 homered just two batters previously. Fate seemed to control the game, as two of the seniors, Levine and Smith, were the final two batters for Brandeis and the final out of the game was a groundout to Levine, who threw to Smith at first base. Each senior had a hit.

The day before, Brandeis took on Regis College in a tough battle. Brandeis scored four runs in the first two innings and Volpe was solid on the mound. But Volpe ran into trouble in the fourth inning as Regis tied the game back up. Brandeis took back a one-run lead in the bottom of the inning, but Regis tied it in the seventh and Brandeis failed to score, putting the game into extra innings. Regis got a runner onto second and moved the runner over to third, but could not get the runner in. In the bottom of the eighth, Marissa Rubin 07 sacrificed Christina McWilliams 07, who had been placed on second, over to third. Following a hit by pitch, Volpe won the game with a single, scoring McWilliams. The final score was 6-5.

Over the weekend, Brandeis traveled to Maine for the Colby Tournament. Brandeis split the four games 2-2 while there. Brandeis lost two games to Colby College by scores of 2-1 and 3-0. Brandeis defeated St. Josephs 3-2 in extra innings and Bates College 5-2. Streilein and Volpe each pitched two games and combined to give up a miniscule five earned runs. Streilein led the team with six hits in thirteen at bats. Volpe led the team with four RBI. Danielle Mayer 08 had a home run to lead off the second inning in the game against Bates.

Looking back at the season, Coach Sullivan had only praise for her team. We worked together as a team and everyone contributed to the season. We played very good softball all season and worked very hard in every game. Im very proud of the way they played all year and they gave everything they had in each game.

Notes: The game scheduled for this past Monday against Emerson College was rained out. It may be made up at some point in the following week. Check the Brandeis website for more details…Glucksman, Levine, and Smith won 58 games while playing for Brandeis.