WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University softball team took a pair of one-run affairs from visiting Framingham State University today on Marcus Field. The Judges held off the Rams, 3-2, in the opener before rallying for a 6-5 win in the nightcap. With the wins, the Judges improve to 14-10 on the season, while the Rams fall to 9-9.
Brandeis won an old-fashioned pitcher's duel in the opener, with sophomore Alex Cohen (West Palm Beach, Fla./Benjamin School) besting FSU's Ally Moran. In seven innings of work, Cohen allowed six hits and two earned runs. She struck out 10, one shy of her career-best, and walked just one, throwing 82 of her 113 pitches for strikes. Cohen improved to 7-2 on the campaign. Moran fell to 3-6 after tossing six innings of eight-hit ball, allowing three earned runs with two walks and two strikeouts.
Brandeis jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning. After a walk, a bunt single and a sacrifice bunt put two runners into scoring position, rookie designated player Anna Kolb (Alexandria, Va. / Thomas A. Edison) doubled to center field for her first two career RBI.
Framingham State got one run back in their next at-bat when SS Camille Desrochers doubled and came home on LF Gwendolyn Carpenter's two-bagger. Brandeis answered in the bottom of the third when Cohen blasted the first pitch she saw to centerfield for her third home run of the season and the fifth of her career.
The blast proved to be the game-winning run, as Framingham State scored in the sixth inning. Carpenter led off with her second double of the game, scoring two batters later on a single by 3B Mercedes Jiminez. Cohen retired the final five batters of the game for her second complete game of the season.
In the second game, Brandeis struck early, scoring twice in the first on an error on a ball hit by Kolb and a groundout by graduate student SS Jolie Fujita (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School).
Framingham State took their first lead of the day in the third when Carpenter notched her third extra-base hit of the day, a three-run home run to right field. It was her second of the season. The Rams extended their lead in the top of the fourth when CF Grace Swanson singled in a run and then executed a double-steal play with Desrochers, who scored just before Swanson was tagged out.
Brandeis junior reliever Chandra Penton (Newton, Mass./Newton South) stifled the Rams after that, retiring seven-straight outs by way of strikeout in the fourth through sixth innings. Meanwhile, the Judges climbed back into the game in the fifth, when sophomore 3B Haley Nash (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem Central) singled with one out and scored two batters later on a double to center by Fujita.
The game-winning rally took place in the sixth. With two away, senior 2B Marley Felder (Miami, Fla / American Heritage) singled to right, and grad student CF Melissa Rothenberg (Lawrenceville, N.J./Lawrence) doubled to put two runners in scoring position, just missing a game-tying home run. Cohen followed with a single to left that plated Felder, while Rothenberg scored when the ball was booted. Cohen then moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Nash's single to left. After FSU got the final out, Penton retired the side, working around a two-out walk, to finish things off.
Penton earned the win with 3.2 innings of three-hit relief. She walked one and struck out a career-high eight to improve to 3-0 on the campaign. Caroline Hughes took the loss for FSU, allowing 11 hits and six runs (five earned) in six innings of work. She struck out three and didn't walk anyone.
Each of the top four hitters in the Brandeis lineup had two hits in game two, with Cohen finishing the day going 4-7 with three RBI and two runs scored, a double and a home run. Felder and Rothenberg both scored two runs in game two, while Fujita and Cohen both drove in two. FSU's big bats on the day were Desrochers (6-8, 3R, 2B) and Carpenter (3-7, 3 RBI, HR, 2 2B).
Brandeis returns to action this weekend with a four-game University Athletic Association series at Carnegie Mellon.