Softball (11-8, 5-3 NESCAC) split a tough two-game series on the road against Colby (11- 11, 3-3 NESCAC) last Sunday. Led by Sadie Leonard ’26 on the mound in the first game, the Ephs won a back-and-forth battle 8-5 before coming up short 2-6 to the Mules in the second matchup of the day. The Ephs now stand at second place in the NESCAC, trailing first-ranked Tufts (22- 5, 10-2 NESCAC).
For the Ephs, the season has been challenging but rewarding thus far. An early round of the Ephs’ games in California — their first 11, which they split 6-5 — allowed for them to bond on and off the field, Justine Dunaway ’27 told the Record. “Our games in California during spring break were so much fun,” she said. “I feel like that kind of brought us together really well, and ever since then, we’ve been really tight and having fun.”
The West Coast swing prepared the team for the season to come, Kelly McGuigan ’24 added. “We were really hopeful in [Los Angeles], because the games we were winning, we were winning really well, and the games we were losing, we were just beating ourselves,” she said. “I had a great outlook coming back because that L.A. league is really tough.”
Coming back from California, however, brought its own set of challenges for the team. “The [Williamstown] weather hasn’t really been in our favor,” Dunaway noted. “It’s been really rainy so our field has been rained out and we’ve been practicing inside in Lasell [Gymnasium] and the ice rink. It’s been tough to not play on a real field, but we’ve been making it work.”
Nonetheless, the Ephs came ready to play against Colby, opening up a quick 5-0 lead in the first two innings of Sunday’s first game. “Going into that game, we were like, ‘We need to win,’” McGuigan said. “That lit us up in the beginning, where the pitcher was just making mistakes and we were capitalizing on them fully.”
McGuigan and Dunaway each landed a pair of hits in the opening two frames, with Dunaway’s second-inning double driving in three runs and launching the Ephs into a five-run lead, which they never fully relinquished. “It felt awesome to get that hit, but I think the best part is looking to the dugout and seeing the team go crazy and cheer for me,” Dunaway said.
After Leonard’s four sparkling innings, the Ephs ran into trouble in the fifth and sixth, as the Mules strung together timely hits to close the gap to 5-4. Clutch seventh-inning hits from Sidney Miller ’26 and Tayler Wise ’24 restored the advantage to 8-4, and the Ephs held on from there to take the 8-5 win.
When the game tightened up, the Ephs dialed in, according to Katie Blanch ’27, who pitched in the sixth and seventh innings to secure the save. “We kind of had to think of it as, ‘It’s never really over,’” she said. “We had to answer to [the run] and just get it done.”
The Ephs hoped to carry this momentum into their second matchup, but the team struggled to get things going offensively against the Mules. Both McGuigan and Dunaway noted the effectiveness of Colby’s pitcher, Abby Orso, who pitched a complete game, allowing only four hits and two runs. “She had a good screwball, and what she was really good at was going outside and painting that corner on lefties, and going inside and jamming the righties,” McGuigan noted.
The Ephs also lacked some of the intensity they displayed in game one. “We definitely lost a bit of energy in the second game,” Blanch said.
The offensive difficulties and slight decline in energy impacted the game’s result. After taking a 1-0 lead in the second inning off of a Natalie Carter ’27 single which plated Dunaway, the Ephs scored just once more as the Mules stepped up offensively to ultimately triumph 6-2. Defense also posed a problem for the Ephs, as the team compiled four errors in the loss.
Despite the tough outcome of the second game, Blanch said the Ephs understand what is required for improvement. “We just have to work on keeping up the energy the whole time,” she said. “At the end of the day, the game is what you give to it, and if you put in the energy, then you’re gonna get hits, you’re gonna answer, and you’re gonna make the plays.”
The Ephs will face Middlebury (12-10, 5-5 NESCAC) in a home doubleheader this Saturday, which also will be the Ephs’ senior night.
The heart of NESCAC play will unfold over the next few weeks, as the Ephs face a string of conference foes. Heading into this critical stretch of the season, the team maintains a sense of optimism. “Our team’s really, really close right now, and I’m just excited to see what we can do,” Dunaway said.
Boosting the team’s confidence are recent promising results, including a battle on April 9 against No. 18 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which was halted at 3-3 in the tenth inning. The game will continue in the eleventh inning on May 1, and the team is excited for the opportunity, according to Leonard. “They have a great program, and it was exciting to get to go head to head and be so competitive through 10 innings,” they said.
