The softball team extended its winning streak to nine games with a three-game sweep of Colby over the weekend, two wins in a doubleheader against University of Maine-Farmington on Tuesday and another two victories against Thomas College yesterday.
The team’s record has improved to 22-9, making this season Head Coach Ryan Sullivan’s seventh-straight 20-win season.
Sullivan said he is pleased with the results thus far, attributing much of the team’s success to being able to focus on small details in its gameplay.
“We have had really good pitching and we are swinging the bats pretty well,” said Sullivan. “This is a really good group that knows when to focus and be ready to play.”
In the squad’s first game on Tuesday, the women took down the Beavers 5-1 with pitcher Tricia Thibodeau ’13 allowing only one hit and run. While Farmington took an early 1-0 lead, Bowdoin returned with three runs in the second inning and at the bottom of the sixth with two more key singles by Cielle Collins ’15 and Hanna Wurgaft ’14.
“I think that sometimes we have a hard time adjusting to slower pitching, so at first it took us a while to hit the ball well,” said Wurgaft. “But as soon we did we were able to put a bunch of runs on the board.”
They continued to hit well in the second game as Melissa DellaTorre ’14 continued pitching to earn a 12-6 victory. After only one run in the first inning, the Polar Bears came back with 12 hits in six innings, two of which were home runs off the bat of captain Gen Barlow ’13.
Most notable, however, was Bowdoin’s home sweep of Colby, in which they won the first game 7-1, the second 11-1, and the third 4-0. The women allowed only two runs on 15 hits in the three games combined.
DellaTorre, who pitched a shut-out in the third game, was named NESCAC Pitcher of the Week for her efforts.
The Polar Bears captured another two wins in a rescheduled doubleheader against Thomas in Waterville on Thursday. The first game ended in a 10-1 win and the second in a 13-4 victory. Their defeat ended the Terriers’ own four game winning streak.
Wurgaft expresses that it’s in games like these that the versatility of the women shows through, as they shift positions during mid-week games due to individuals’ class schedules.
“It’s not easy to be thrown in another position, but you kind of just have to take it in stride and it’s just a testament to our team that we have each other’s backs like that,” she said.
Bowdoin’s cohesion will be put to the test again this weekend in a three-game series against Bates in Lewiston, beginning at 4 p.m. today. While Bowdoin has typically dominated the Bobcats, they have managed to pick up one game of the series in four of the past five years.
Wurgaft hopes her team will rise to the occasion.
“They get really excited to play us. We can’t just go through the motions,” she said.
The women now stand second to Tufts in the NESCAC East division with a record of 22-9.