The baseball team's week began and ended with the bullpen. After allowing a three-run ninth inning in Tuesday's 5-4 home loss to Wheaton College, the Judges breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday when their bullpen hung on in the ninth inning to give the Judges a 12-9 victory at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. The game capped off a three-game win streak in which the relief pitchers were instrumental to the team's success. With the 3-1 week, Brandeis improved to 9-5 on the season heading into yesterday's home game against MIT, which the Judges won 3-2 and ended too late for this edition.

"The starters know that they don't have the pressure to go the full game," closer Aaron Landes '06 said. "They know that if they have to hand the ball to [the relievers], we can succeed."

The Judges methodically jumped on UMass' pitching Sunday. After a four-run rally in the third inning on RBI singles by Zach Golden '06, Jon Winston '07 and Jeff Bourdon '07 and three more runs in the fifth, the team was cruising behind an 8-2 lead. With back-and-forth scoring in the following innings, UMass was able cut the lead to 12-9 in the bottom of the ninth. However, rookie set-up man James Collins '09, who had allowed the two runs on inherited base runners, remained composed and went on to retire the final batter on a groundout to end the rally.

"Psychologically, [Collins] has done very well," Landes said. "In short innings of work he has really been effective, and I think he is going to be a stud in the future."

While Collins saved the day, it was the Judges' lineup that stole the show, as each Brandeis batter recorded at least one hit.

"We just got contributions from everybody, everyone did their part," catcher Phil Aurigemma '06 said. "I think we are pretty solid, one through nine. We have guys who can hit for power, for average and the guys at the bottom of lineup can drive people in."

Landes recorded the first save of his Brandeis career in the Judges' previous game, a 7-4 win at Springfield College Thursday. Springfield loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but Landes managed to allow just one run to escape with the save.

"I've been a starter my entire life, so [getting the save] was cool," Landes said.

For Landes and the Judges, the good feelings were a sign of the way the team had recovered from their collapse against Wheaton. Leading 4-2 in the top of the ninth inning, Collins gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning after retiring seven of the last nine batters he faced. Landes then came into the game, and went on to allow an RBI double, an RBI groundout and the game-winning single.

Landes had a tough time absorbing the first blown save of his career.

"It was a difficult thing to swallow," Landes said. "I was in a bad mood for the entire night."

After not only recovering but excelling on the mound for the rest of the week, Landes said he has a better understanding of the closer's thick-skinned mentality.

"Being a closer, you just have to shrug things off," Landes said.

The Judges did not have to worry about their bullpen on Wednesday, as starting pitcher Tim Dunphy '06 went the distance in the team's 6-3 win over Salve Regina University. Dunphy gave up 14 hits over nine innings to improve to 4-2 on the year. The left-hander was named the University Athletic Association Pitcher of the Week on March 29.

"[Dunphy] is our stud pitcher," Landes said. "He has been awesome all year. It's great to have an anchor like that at the front of our staff. [The relievers] know that it is not every single game that we have to be called on for four to five innings."

After the three-game win streak, the Judges said that they are finding their stride heading into midseason.

"It's nice when we play every day and finally get some good weather," Aurigemma said. "We were playing in Florida every day, then we came up here, had a few days off, and hit some hard weather at first. Now we have a bunch of games under our belt and we are starting to play well as a team."

The Judges travel to New Haven to face Albertus Magnus College on Wednesday.