BEVERLY, Mass. – A pair of Brandeis University softball seniors shined today as the Judges defeated regionally-ranked Endicott College, 6-0, on the road in their season finale. Brandeis closes its season on a five-game winning streak.
TEAM RECORDS
- Brandeis: 18-19.
- Endicott: 21-11.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Judges left the bases loaded without scoring in the top of the first, but broke through in the third after three-straight 1-2-3 half-innings.
- With one out in the third, senior pitcher Alex Cohen (West Palm Beach, Fla./Benjamin School) singled up the middle, and junior shortstop Anna Kolb (Alexandria, Va./Thomas A. Edison) followed with a hit to shortstop.
- Senior Haley Nash (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem Central) followed and drilled a pitch over the leftfield fence to give Brandeis a 3-0 lead. The home run was her 11th of the season, tying her for the University Athletic Association lead. The 11 homers are the third-highest single-season total in program history and give Nash 30 for her career, one shy of Melissa Jones '99's career record.
- After the blast, Endicott reliever Hadley Marchand got a strikeout, but after a single and a walk, sophomore RF Maddie Manes (San Clemente, Calif./San Juan Hills) delivered a two-run triple past a diving Gull outfielder to make it 5-0.
- Although Brandeis tacked on an unearned run in the seventh, that was all Cohen needed.
- She held Endicott to just four batters over the minimum on three hits and a hit batter. She struck out a season-high nine without walking a batter, holding her opponents to five hits or less for the fourth-straight start. She finishes the season with a 9-11 record.
- The win was Cohen's 33rd of her career, tying her for sixth on the Judges' career list, while her 292 career strikeouts rank fifth all-time.
- Offensively, Nash went 3-4 with three RBI, a double, a home run and a run scored. In addition to her 30 career home runs, she ends the season with 99 career RBI, tied with two others for eighth on the all-time list. She will be returning for a year of graduate school next year.
- Manes, Kolb and junior catcher Tristan Boyer (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) each had two hits for the Judges.
- Endicott's Abigail Gilbert took the loss in the circle to fall to 1-1 on the season, allowing five hits and three earned runs in 2.1 innings. She walked one without a strikeout.
- Gull LF Ella Tower had one of the their three hits and the only one for extra bases, a double.
UP NEXT
- The Judges finish the season with an 18-19 record and will return all but one starter for the 2025 season.
