Box Score WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University softball team blasted a pair of home runs among its 10 hits in a 14-6 win over visiting WPI in the first game of a doubleheader today. In Game 2, the Judges rallied to score four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the game at 7-7 before umpires suspended the game due to darkness.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: 4-5.
• WPI: 3-4-1.

HOW IT HAPPENED, GAME 1

• WPI 1B Emily Nagy got the visitors on the board first in the top of the first inning of Game 1, blasting a home run to left field to give them an early 2-0 lead.
• Brandeis got the runs back and then some in the bottom of the second. Junior 3B Anna Kolb (Alexandria, Va./Thomas A. Edison) bashed her second career home run, also to left, with two runners on to put the Judges ahead, 3-2.
• The Judges went on to send 13 batters to the plate in the second, scoring eight runs in the frame on just four hits as the Engineers issued four walks and hit a batter in the frame.
• The other big hit in the inning was a two-run single up the middle by senior catcher Haley Nash (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem Central), helping Brandeis take an 8-2 lead
• WPI trimmed their deficit to three runs with three in the third, as Ava Laughlin delivered a pinch two-run single in the frame.
• Brandeis went deep twice in the bottom of the third, with rookie Hana Bean (Manchester, N.H./St. Paul's School) delivering her first collegiate home run to left to open the inning, while sophomore LF Bells Burdenski (San Diego, Calif. Rancho Bernardo) connected on a three-run shot to make it 12-5, Brandeis. It was her first of the season and the fifth of her career.
• WPI's Virginia McKinney delivered a solo homer in the fifth to help delay the 8-run rule, but Brandeis first-year 1B Brooke Boehmer (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) drove in runs in the fifth and sixth innings with a double and a fielder's choice, with the last ending the game, 14-6.
• Brandeis senior Alex Cohen (West Palm Beach, Fla./The Benjamin School) earned the win in the circle, allowing seven hits and six runs in three innings. She struck out two and walked three, improving to 2-3 on the season.
• Sophomore Ragini Kannan (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) shut down the Engineers over the last three frames, allowing two hits and no runs, striking out four and walking one.
• WPI's Nicole Boldebuck took the loss, giving up five runs (four earned), two hits and two walks in one full inning of work.

HOW IT HAPPENED, GAME 2

• Brandeis scored single runs in each of the first three innings, but WPI responded with a five-run fifth inning.
• The Engineers extended their lead to 7-3 in the top of the sixth, but Brandeis took advantage of the increasing darkness in the bottom of the frame.
• Bean slugged her second home run of the day, and the Judges connected on several more hard-hit balls that WPI defenders had difficulty fielding as Brandeis tied the game at 7-7.
• The Judges had runners on first and second when the umpires declared the game could not continue. The coaches agreed to try to resume the suspended contest later in the season on a date to be determined.

UP NEXT

• Brandeis heads to UMass Dartmouth on Wednesday March 27 for a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m.