The women's softball team came away with only one win from the University of Maryland Baltimore County Spring Classic, a four game tournament held in Baltimore this weekend.
On Saturday afternoon, Bruno fell to Robert Morris 4-2 and came up short again to Coppin State 4-0. On Sunday afternoon, the Bears rebounded to edge Mount St. Mary's 5-4, but then fell to UMBC 7-1 in their final game of the weekend.
In the first game against Robert Morris, Kelsey Hom '15 and Stephanie Thompson '13 were key in leading the offense. The Bears were able to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth, but the Colonials regained the lead in the top of the fifth and added an insurance run in the sixth to secure the win. Later in the afternoon, Coppin State shut out the Bears, as Kate Strobel '12 and Avery Silverstein '13 tallied the Bears' only two hits of the game.
But Bruno came back Sunday and won a close game against Mount St. Mary's that "showed how effective our offense can be," said Kelsey Williams '14. The Mountaineers took an early lead by tallying two runs in the first inning and then adding another run in the fourth to gain a 3-0 lead. Thompson launched a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, bringing the Bears within two. After Mount St. Mary's reestablished a three-run cushion, Silverstein drove in Williams with an RBI single in the fifth inning. Hom then won the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, cracking a three-run walk-off homer to give Brown the 5-4 victory over the Mountaineers.
In their final game, the Bears challenged host UMBC but lost the momentum they had found in the day's first game. Strobel tallied Bruno's sole run of the game on a solo home run, and the UMBC offense provided more than enough run support, winning 7-1.
Head Coach DeeDee Enabenter-Omidiji said she thought the first-year pitching staff kept the Bears close in every game.
"There were some misplays behind them, and we didn't get a lot of offensive support," she said. "The pitchers had a much better tournament than in the first week of play. They were definitely more consistent around the plate."
After this weekend's results, Enabenter-Omidiji said the players are even more aware they need to learn how to refocus and be more consistent.
"If we can learn how to focus on the task at hand, we will be more successful," she said.
"We haven't been playing to our full potential, which is causing us to lose to teams that we should be beating," Williams said. "Our pitching staff made a huge improvement from our El Paso showings, which was good to see, but our offense struggled. Now, we just need to get all aspects of our game to click together for the rest of the season."
Enabenter-Omidiji said the team is still working "to connect on all aspects of the game."
"At times, the offense has been clicking, but the pitching has not, or the defense has faltered, and the offense has suffered also," she said. "We have to work through some things until we get more games under our belt."
Enabenter-Omidiji said she is hopeful the team's overall performance will improve.
"It will eventually all come together ... and hopefully it won't take too long," she said.
The Bears will hit the road over spring break, travelling to Riverside, Calif., this coming weekend to play host University of California at Riverside, Santa Clara University and Colorado State at the UC Riverside Tournament. The start of their Ivy campaign then follows March 30 at Penn and March 31 at Columbia.
