The softball team wrapped up a grueling stretch of 16 games in two weeks with back-to-back wins over the University of Rhode Island Tuesday. The frenetic finish to March came after the Bears' first seven games of the month were all cancelled due to rain.
The Bears opened up the stretch with a win over Holy Cross in their first home contest of the season before heading to sunny Florida for a week-long Spring Break trip. Brown fared well in the Rebel Spring Games in Kissimmee, Fla., as the team came away with two wins and two one-run defeats.
The Bears then took on Stetson and Jacksonville, before facing a North Florida team fresh off a win over nationally ranked Florida State. After a day off, the team hit the road again to take on their first Ivy League opponents of the season in Cornell and Princeton.
The Bears returned home Tuesday to defeat in-state rival URI twice, 4-3 and 3-1.
Brown 12, Holy Cross 3
On March 18, the Bears were ready to play in front of the home crowd after an 18-day lay-off from competition. Amanda Asay '10, Trish Melvin '12 and Kate Strobel '12 led the way for the Bears as each hit one out of the park, accounting for seven of the runs on the day.
Pitcher Michelle Moses '09 put together a solid all-around performance, allowing three runs while striking out three for the win. She also knocked in two runs in the third inning on a single to right.
"To come out on the field and play strong, it was a really good way to start our spring break," said Kelsey Wilson '09.
Brown 5, Army 1
On March 20, Bruno played their first two games of the Rebel Spring Games, starting off with a 5-1 win over Army.
Army tallied one run on the scoreboard in the first before Brown added two of its own in the bottom half of the inning, when Melvin knocked a two-run double to right center. Moses shut down the Black Knights' offense for the rest of the game and the offense added another three runs to the board, as Kristie Chin '12 added a two-run single.
But the win for Brown also included misfortune. Asay suffered an ankle injury in the first inning that will likely sideline her for much of the rest of the season.
Iona 1, Brown 0
The win over army was followed later that day by a narrow loss to Iona, 1-0.
Jessica Iwasaki '10 held Iona scoreless for 6.2 innings, but ran into trouble with two outs in the seventh, leaving runners at the corners for reliever Emily Chaddock '11. Iona scored the winning run on an illegal pitch to get the 1-0 win over the Bears, who were unable to muster any run production despite a strong game from Sandra Mastrangelo '12, who led the way for the Bears with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate.
Wagner 5, Brown 4
The Seahawks jumped out to a 4-0 lead over the Bears, but the Bears fought back with a four-run sixth inning. Strobel and Wilson each came up with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 4-2, and Melvin hit a two-run single to tie up the game.
But Wagner scored a run off of Moses, who came on in relief, to secure the 5-4 win over Brown.
"You're out there for seven innings, you never give up and have confidence that you can rally back," Wilson said. "We just fell short."
Brown 2, Farleigh Dickinson 1
Strobel tallied the only runs on the day for Bruno with a two-run homer, and Melvin and Moses combined for seven innings of one-run pitching.
Stetson 8, Brown 0
Stetson built a commanding lead with six runs in the first inning and held on for the 8-0 win.
Jacksonville 11, Brown 1
Paced by two four-run innings, Jacksonville handled Brown in the first match-up, as the Bears could not get their offense going, recording only two hits.
Jacksonville 3, Brown 2
The Bears bounced back in the second game, rattling off seven hits while holding a 2-0 advantage for the majority of the contest. Strobel continued to produce as she brought Mastrangelo home with a single, to put the Bears up 1-0 in the top of the fourth, and Jackie Giovanniello '12 added to Bruno's lead with an RBI double in the seventh.
But the Dolphins' bats came alive in the seventh as they tied it up to send the game into extra innings, and Jacksonville went on to score the winning run on a bases-loaded walk by Chaddock in the eighth inning.
"We played well leading up to the final inning," Wilson said. "We didn't close them out and could have scored some more runs."
North Florida 2, Brown 0
North Florida jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, and though Melvin held North Florida scoreless or the remainder of the game, Bruno could not fight its way back.
"It was positive that we were hanging in with the teams, but on the other side, it's hard to lose the close ones thinking we should have won the game," Wilson said.
North Florida 12, Brown 10
Game two featured two hot offenses, as the two teams combined for 26 hits and 22 runs. The Bears gained a 4-1 lead in the second before the Lady Ospreys answered with six runs to take a 7-4 lead. Brown added another three runs in the fourth inning, when Melvin hit a two-run double, and eventually scored on an illegal pitch to tie the game, 7-7. After another three-run fifth inning put the Bears up, 10-8, North Florida cleared the bases with a two-out three-run triple to pull ahead for good.
Melvin went 4-for-5 from the plate with two RBI, while Wilson finished 3-for-3 with two RBI and Giovanniello went 3-for-4 with three RBI in the losing effort.
Cornell 11, Brown 0
Cornell began the day with an offensive onslaught as the Big Red tallied all eleven of their runs in the first inning. Melvin gave up six of the runs, while Iwasaki surrendered the other five, before Chin came in to pitch two shutout innings of relief.
Cornell 6, Brown 0
The second game did not turn out better for Bruno, as the offense continued to struggle. Chaddock led the Bears with an .800 average over the two games, going 4-for-5 from the plate.
Princeton 8, Brown 2
The Bears started off strong, tallying two runs in the opening three innings while holding the Tigers scoreless. The Tigers battled back with six runs in the fourth inning to take a lead they would never relinquish. Princeton tacked on two more runs in the sixth to finish out the game, 8-2.
Brown 2, Princeton 1
The Bears capitalized early again in the second game, as they scored two runs in the third inning. Iwasaki allowed one run in three and two-thirds innings before Chaddock came in to pitch two and one-third innings of shut-out softball to earn her first win of the season and the team's first Ivy win of the season.
"The win showed that we are capable of closing out a game," Wilson said. "We didn't have a lot of offensive opportunities, but we were able to capitalize on them."
Elaina Atherton '12 scored two runs on the day while going 2-for-5 from the plate. Wilson added two doubles and one RBI, while Strobel contributed two hits and an RBI.
Brown 4, URI 3
Bruno scored three runs in the first inning, when Wilson hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded to tally the first run and Giovanniello singled to right field to bring in two more runs. In the third, Strobel doubled to right field and Giovaniello brought Strobel home with an RBI single to give Brown a 4-0 lead.
A three-run double in the top of the seventh cut Brown's lead to 4-3, but Moses closed out the game for the win.
Brown 3, URI 1
The Bears took game two by a score of 3-1 as Moses recorded her first complete game of the season, moving her record to 4-3. Strobel led the offensive attack for the Bears with a 4-for-6 performance, including two doubles, while Giovaniello contributed a team-high three RBI.
The Bears will host Penn and Columbia this weekend in Ivy League action on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., followed by a double header on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
