From Brandeis University Athletics

The Brandeis University softball team sits solidly in third place after the fourth day of action at the 2016 University Athletic Association tournament. In the first two rematches of the week, the Judges played a tough contest with #2 Washington University before falling, 6-3, but the Judges bounced back to complete a sweep of the University of Rochester, 13-6. The Judges improve to 6-6 on the season and are 4-3 in the UAA, their highest win total since 2010 in the league.

AGAINST ROCHESTER

• In an offensive showdown, the Judges and Yellowjackets combined for 19 runs on 27 hits.
• Runs were scored in 10 of the 14 at-bats in the game, including five inning with at least two runs.
• Brandeis put up the biggest single innings, scoring four runs each in the fifth and sixth innings, snapping a 4-4 tie in the fifth and expanding on an 8-6 lead in the sixth.
• Eight of the nine Brandeis starters had hits and six different players drove in runs.
• Senior 3B Madison Sullivan (Dover, N.H./Dover) continued to wield a big bat for Brandeis, going 3-5 with an RBI and two run scored.
• Sullivan doubled in the third and scored a run, then hit her first home run of the season in the seventh to close out the scorinHg. It was her 12^th career home run.
• Junior CF Madison Hunter (Parker, Colo./Legend) had just one hit, but drove in a team-high three runs, thanks to an RBI single in the first, a sacrifice fly in the fifth and a run-producing groundout in the sixth.
• Hunter is now tied for third in UAA play with eight RBI, the most by a non-Emory player.
• Rookie DP Keri Lehtonen (Oneco, Conn. / Plainfield) went 3-4 with three runs scored out of the leadoff spot in the lineup and now has eight runs scored, second-most in the tournament.
• Rookie lefty Sarah Petrides (Scottsdale, Ariz. / Phoenix Country Day School) earned the win, pitching seven innings and allowing 10 hits and five earned runs to improve to 2-1 this season.
• Petrides came in with the bases loaded in the first and a run already in on a leadoff home run, but got a line to second base and a line-drive double play to Sullivan at third to escape further damage and protect a 3-1 Brandeis lead.

VS. WASHINGTON U.

• After dropping a 10-run rule decision the Bears in the first meeting, the Judges fell behind again, 4-0, after three innings.
• The Judges threw out two Washington University runners on the base-paths to prevent more damage in the early innings.
• Brandeis got on the board in the fourth after Lehtonen walked and sophomore Amanda Shore (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty)  reached on a bunt single. Two batters later, Sullivan plated Lehtonen on a grounder to second.
• WashU scored two more in the bottom of the fourth, but the Judges got them right back in the fifth.
• Lehtonen drove in a run with single up the middle, and senior Danielle Novotny (Milford, N.J./Delaware Valley) did the same with the bases loaded two batters later.
• Washington All-American pitcher Annie Pitkin escaped further trouble with a strikeout and went on to retired the final seven batters for the win.
• Junior Melissa Soleimani (Somerset, Mass./Somerset Berkeley) suffered the loss in the circle, falling to 2-4 on the season.