CLERMONT, Fla. – The Brandeis University softball team continued its outstanding pitching today as the Judges concluded their season-opening trip to THE Spring Games in Florida with wins over Buena Vista (Iowa), 7-1, and St. Joseph's College (Maine), 8-1. Three Brandeis pitchers combined to allow just six hits over 14 innings of work.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis, 5-1.
• Buena Vista, 1-5.
• St. Joseph's (Maine), 1-1.

HOW IT HAPPENED vs. BUENVA VISTA (Brandeis, 7-1)

• First-year Madeline Jennings (New York, N.Y. / Beacon) picked up her first win of the season with her best start, tossing five innings of three-hit ball. She allowed one earned run and had one strikeout out without a walk.
• Sophomore Jamie Staub (Lawrenceville, N.J. / Hun School) retired six of the seven batters she faced with four strikeouts to close things out.
• The Beavers scored in the top of the first, as a lead-off hitter Arielle Bowers singled, advanced to second on a groundout and stole third. She scored on an error back to the circle, but the Judges turned one of their three double plays on the day to end the threat.
• It was all Brandeis after that, with the Judges scoring twice in the bottom of the first to claim the lead. Sophomore 3B Jordan Wallace (Howell, N.J. / Choate Rosemary Hall, Conn.) knotted the game with an RBI single, and scored the winning run from first on a double by junior CF Bells Burdenski (San Diego, Calif. / Rancho Bernardo).
• In the second, sophomore catcher Dylan Yamamura (Newbury Park, Calif. / Newbury Park) doubled and scored on a single by first-year 2B Mia Deck (Laguna Hills, Calif. / Santa Margarita Catholic)¸
• Brandeis broke things open with a four-run fifth inning that included a two-run single by junior 1B Brooke Boehmer (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Mount Lebanon) and a home run by Wallace.
• It was Wallace's seventh career home run and the Judges' first of the 2026 season.
• In all, 10 different Judges combined for the team's 13 hits, with Boehmer, Wallace and Deck posting two hits each.
• Wallace had the big bat overall, finishing 2-3 with three RBI and two runs scored to go with her home run.

HOW IT HAPPENED vs. ST. JOSEPH'S (MAINE) (Brandeis, 8-1)

• Senior Ragini Kannan (Westford, Mass./Westford) continued her torrid start in the circle, earning her third win of the week.
• Kannan struck out a career-high 14 Monks, registering her sixth career game with 10 or more Ks.
• Kannan retired the first nine batters she faced – seven on strikeouts - to extend her hitless streak to 14 innings before SJC finally got a hit and a baserunner in the top of the fourth.
• After the Monks put together three hits for Kannan's first earned run allowed this year, she got a strikeout to end the frame and did not allow another baserunner, adding another seven whiffs.
• Kannan's previous career high for strikeouts was 12, achieved three times during her rookie season.
• Kannan's win was the 30^th of her career, making her the 11^th Judge to reach that milestone. Her 38^th complete game moved her into eighth place on Brandeis's all-time list, while her strikeout total improved to 286, moving into sixth on the career list.
• Offensively, the Judges got on the board two batters into the game, when senior Erin Hunt (Wake Forest, N.C. / Franklin Academy) singled and scored on a double by first-year Taryn Rainey (Huntley, Ill. / Huntley).
• The game-winning runs scored in the third, when Rainey singled and scored on a Burdenski triple. Burdenski then came home on a Wallace single.
• Brandeis tacked on five runs in the final three innings, highlighted by the first collegiate home run by first-year Cae Pellegrini (Milford, Mass. / Milford), a three-run shot in the fifth. Rainey drove in a run in the sixth, while first-year Alexa Johnson (La Crescenta, Calif. / Crescenta Valley) plated one in the seventh.
• Pellegrini's blast gave her a team-high three RBI, while Hunt had three hits and two runs scored out of the leadoff spot.

UP NEXT

• The Judges return to action in New England this week with games scheduled to be played next Saturday at Wentworth and Sunday at Simmons.