Down to its last out and trailing by eight runs, the softball team could have allowed Harvard to leave Providence with an easy sweep of the teams' doubleheader on Saturday. But Melissa Ota '07 stepped to the plate and drilled a three-run home run to bring Brown within five, at 10-5. With the impossible now within grasp, the Bears pulled out all the stops and claimed an improbable 11-10 victory.
"I was so proud of our team at that point because we showed a never-say-die attitude, and just refused to be swept on our home field," said tri-captain Rachel Fleitell '06.
The momentum of Saturday's thrilling come-from-behind victory helped propel the squad to another 8-2 win over Dartmouth in the first game of its Sunday doubleheader.
Despite these two great offensive performances, Brown could only manage a split in its four games this weekend, as the Bears' offense fell silent in two other contests. The Crimson defeated Bruno 6-2 in the first game of the weekend, and the Big Green pulled out a 2-1 victory to close the weekend. The Bears move to 3-5 in Ivy play and 13-23 overall.
The Crimson jumped out to the early lead in the second game, bringing home three runs in the first inning. Tri-captain Jaimie Wirkowski '06 responded in the bottom of the first, hitting her first home run of the season with no runners on.
Harvard quickly retaliated, tacking on five more runs in the fourth in an attempt to walk away with the two-game sweep. Bruno brought the score to 7-2 in the sixth when catcher Amy Baxter '08 homered. Harvard refused to relent, striking back with two more in the seventh inning, boosting its lead to 10-2.
In the final inning, Brown stepped up to the plate and refused to go quietly in defeat.
"Jaimie brought the whole team together (before Brown's turn to bat)," said Head Coach Pam McCreesh. "She said that it was a matter of pride at this point and to get something going in the last inning."
Mary Seid '06 started the inning by reaching base on an error, and Kaitlyn Laabs '09 advanced Seid when hit by a pitch. Wirkowski and Kelsey Wilson '09 earned outs by popping up, and the Crimson was one out away from burying Bruno. Ota stepped to the plate next, and with the game on her shoulders, came through with a bomb.
"There were two outs and runners at first and second so I was actually trying to shorten up my swing and get a hit - not hit a home run because I am not a home run hitter," Ota said. "Even after I hit the homerun, we still had a big deficit to make up, but it definitely set the tone for the rest of the inning. At that point, it generated some momentum for us."
That momentum carried over when Baxter reached on another error, advancing to second. Then, Liz Anderson '07 singled, advancing Baxter to third. Blooping a single to center, Ava Amini '09 kept the Bears alive and brought in Baxter, cutting the deficit to 10-6. When Fleitell was hit by a pitch, the bases were loaded for Seid, who had led off the inning.
She worked the count to 2-1 and then, in dramatic fashion, hit a screaming line drive into the left-center field gap to clear the bases.
"When I am hitting, I try to look for the pitcher's mistakes," Seid said. "I wasn't trying to kill the ball in that at-bat, just to make solid contact."
With Seid on second base as the tying run, Laabs returned to the plate. With the count at 1-1, she turned on a fastball, driving it over the right-center field wall, clinching Brown's amazing comeback.
The opening game earlier against the Crimson, unfortunately, did not have the same fairytale ending. The Bears got off to a solid start by taking an early 2-0 lead in the second inning when Baxter hit a double to center to score Wilson and Ota for Bruno's lone runs.
The Crimson dominated in the fifth inning, as Harvard tagged Michelle Moses '09 for two runs. In the sixth, the late-game charge continued, with the Crimson tallying four more runs off of Moses and Wilson. Harvard then sealed the Bears' fate with three run-scoring doubles.
Up against the Big Green Sunday, the Bears brought out the same energy that fueled their seventh-inning miracle the night before, putting away three runs in the first two innings to give Moses an early cushion.
Brown broke the game open in the fifth, when Baxter hit a bases-loaded triple to clear the bases, putting the Bears up 6-2. Bruno added two more runs in the next inning and cruised the rest of the way.
Moses pitched a complete game, striking out five and walking only two.
The second game of the day was a pitching duel, pitting Wilson against Dartmouth's Stephanie Trudeau. For the first five innings, Wilson dominated the Big Green, allowing a mere two hits and tallying five strikeouts. She ran into trouble in the sixth, giving up back-to-back singles. Dartmouth's Kelly Fry connected next, hitting a two-RBI double to put the Big Green up. Though the damage had been done, Wilson regained her composure, retiring the last two hitters of the inning and stranding Fry at second base.
With two runners on and two out in the seventh, Dartmouth intentionally walked Seid to get to Saturday's hero, Laabs. The move proved to be an effective one, and Laabs struck out, ending Bruno's dreams of another seventh-inning rally.
"We played really hard and executed well. We just couldn't get that big hit when we needed it," McCreesh said.
Brown returns to the diamond on Wednesday when it travels to Kingston, R.I. to face the University of Rhode Island in a double-header for state bragging rights.
