The softball team made a splash in its first-ever Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament this month, with upset victories over several top seeds, but inconsistent hitting and poor fielding eventually derailed its Cinderella run. After a 2-1 first-round win over No. 3 seed Rivier College May 9, and an 8-0 victory over top-seeded Roger Williams College May 12 in their first elimination game of this double-elimination tournament, the Judges were one victory away from a berth in the championship round. But they fell 8-2 to Western New England College May 13, ending their first season under head coach Jessica Johnson with a 23-21 record, the team's second-best mark ever. Western Connecticut State University won the tournament.

"I want [the kids] to be postseason-minded, so for what we're trying to do with the program, [the ECAC tournament] was a great jumping off," Johnson said.

This was the fourth 20-win season in school history, but the first time the softball team posted back-to-back 20-win campaigns.

Brandeis got off to a quick start against Western New England College. Marissa Rubin '07 put them on the board in the top of the first after she singled, stole a base and scored after a wild pitch and an error by the Golden Bears.

The game quickly unraveled, however, when the Judges committed four errors in the bottom of the inning. The Golden Bears added four hits in the frame, leading to five unearned runs scored off losing pitcher Emily Vaillette '10.

"The fielding errors [cost us the game]," Vaillette said. "[WNEC] hit the ball off of me, but there were hits that should have been outs. I think we were just nervous. It was the morning, we really wanted to win, and our heads just weren't fully in it."

After Vaillette surrendered three more runs in the top of the second, including a two-run homer by Bears' senior Jess Nelson, she was pulled by coach Jessica Johnson in favor of Kaitlin Streilein '08. Streilein kept the Judges in the game by surrendering only two hits over the remaining 4.1 innings.

"It seemed like they were hitting [Vaillette] a little bit harder, but we still should have made the plays, and if we had, I don't think she would have come out of the game as quick as she did," shortstop Chelsea Korp '10 said.

The Judges' bats were silent until the fifth inning, when a walk and two hits generated their second run of the game on Korp's RBI single. The squad then failed to capitalize on five more hits over the last two frames, stranding four runners on base.

After beating Rivier in the first round of the main bracket, the Judges dropped the next game to Western Connecticut State 8-1 May 12, prompting Johnson to make another lineup switch. She returned Korp to the leadoff spot, where she began the season, and moved Streilein back down to fourth in the lineup. The switch worked temporarily in the consolation bracket, leading the squad to their eight-run shutout of Roger Williams.

"I think that a lot of people felt more comfortable with [the new] lineup," Korp said. "It worked out very well because [Streilein] and [Volpe] are good hitters to have to drive in runs when me and [Rubin] can get on base."

But the new lineup of Judges couldn't get past the Golden Bears in the second round of the consolation bracket.

"After the third inning [against WNEC], we really got our heads back in the game and started making the outs that we needed to make, and we were starting to hit the ball a little bit," Vaillette said. "Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to recover the eight runs, but we chipped away a little bit."

Johnson took over a team that went 20-24 in 2006 under Mary Sullivan, Brandeis' coach of 32 years who was controversially fired last August.

The team got off to a slow start, going 2-6 for the second-straight year at the season-opening University Athletic Association championships in Altamonte Springs, Fla. March 13-17. However, the team reeled off a six-game winning streak March 29-April 1 and started New England play with a 12-5 run that was ignited by several lineup changes from Johnson, which boosted the offense, most notably Streilein's move from the cleanup slot to the leadoff position.

After the offense cooled again during a four-game skid April 14-21, Streilein's late-season power surge, which included four home runs in an eight-game stretch, helped the Judges secure their first-ever ECAC berth.

Johnson said that although the Judges improved their record from last year, they still a long way to go.

"Perfection is my nature, so that is what is important for me, instead of trying to compare last year to this year," she said.