Posted: Apr 17, 2016
From Brandeis University Athletics
The Brandeis University softball team hosted Colby College on Marcus Field today and the squads managed a doubleheader split. The Judges rode a career-best pitching outing by sophomore Sadie-Rose Apfel (Stamford, Conn./Westhill) to an 8-0 win in the opener, while the Mules got four RBI in the first two innings from 1B Tori Sansone (Califon, N.J./Voorhees) in a 7-1 win in the second contest. Brandeis is now 12-13 on the season, while Colby is now 9-13.
GAME ONE – HIGHLIGHTS
- Apfel was in control in the first game, allowing a career-low three hits over five innings to improve to 4-3 on the season. She struck out four and didn't walk a batter.
- It was Apfel's fifth career complete game and second shutout.
- Only one runner advanced past second base for Colby. The Mules had runners on second and third with one out in the fourth inning, but a hard-hit ball to third turned into a double play.
- Senior Madison Sullivan (Dover, N.H./Dover) went across the diamond to classmate Jordan Buscetto (Old Lyme, Conn./Old Lyme) at first.
- Buscetto then fired a strike to the plate as the runner charged from third, and junior Danielle Novotny (Milford, N.J./Delaware Valley) blocked the plate beautifully to end the inning and preserve the shutout.
- Offensively, the Judges got all the scoring they would need in the bottom of the first on a Novotny RBI double to right.
- Junior Liana Moss (Agoura Hill, Calif./Agoura) doubled home a run in the third to make it 2-0.
- Brandeis blew things open in the fourth, as senior 2B Madison Gagnon (Westlake Village, Calif./Westlake) hit a two-run double and Sullivan followed two batters later with a first-pitch homer to right to make it 6-0.
- The homer was Sullivan's sixth of the season and 17th of her career, moving her into sole possession of sixth place on Brandeis's career list.
- The Judges ended the game in the bottom of the fifth when rookie DP Keri Lehtonen (Oneco, Conn./Plainfield) singled in two runs
- Lehtonen was the overall hitting star of the game, going 4-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored. It was her first collegiate four-hit game.
- Colby rookie Wiley Holton (Dedham, Mass./Rivers School) suffered the loss, falling to 3-4 on the season after allowing 10 hits and eight earned runs in four-plus innings.
GAME TWO – HIGHLIGHTS
- Colby took advantage of Brandeis miscues to open up a 5-0 lead after two frames.
- The first two Mules reached on errors and came home on a Sansone double to center field.
- Three batters later, rookie 2B Paige Hartnett (Andover, Mass./Andover) doubled to make it 3-0 with runners on second and third.
- Brandeis junior Melissa Soleimani (Somerset, Mass./Somerset Berkley Regional) escaped further damage when a bunt was popped to catcher Lehtonen, who caught the runner at third charging home.
- In the second, another Brandeis error, a hit batter and a bunt put runners in scoring position for Colby, and Sansone made the Judges pay with a single to left, making it 5-0.
- The Mules added a run in the third against reliever Sarah Petrides (Scottsdale, Ariz./Phoenix Country Day) on a Kathleen Mason (E. Sandwich, Mass./Pope John Paul II) single.
- The Judges broke through for a run in the third on a Gagnon sacrifice fly.
- Brandeis threatened in the fourth, but had a runner thrown out at the plate, and in the sixth, when the first two hitters reached.
- Colby sophomore Julia Saul (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto Senior) got out of the jam on a hard-hit ball to left by Sullivan and back-to-back strikeouts.
- The Mules got another unearned run in the seventh, and Saul stranded two more runners in the bottom to finish out the 7-1 win.
- Eight different Brandeis hitters had their nine hits, with only junior Leah Shapiro (Beverly Hills, Calif./Beverly Hills) getting more than one.
- Colby's Sansone was the big hitter of game two, finishing 2-4 with four RBI and a double.
- Saul improved to 4-6 in the circle for the Mules, scattering the nine hits to allow just the one earned run. She struck out two and walked one.
- Soleimani suffered the loss to fall to 6-9, though none of the five runs she allowed in 1.2 innings were earned.
- Petrides had her third-longest career relief outing, tossing 5.1 innings of five-hit ball, surrendering two runs (one earned), with two Ks and a walk.