The baseball team ran its record to 7-9 overall last week with a 6-0 road loss to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday and a 8-2 road win over Salem State University this past Monday.

The Judges fell behind early in Friday's contest, surrendering four runs over the course of the first three innings. Though each of the top five batters in the Brandeis lineup registered a hit, the Judges were unable to string together a run.

MIT, on the heels of a two-out RBI single from freshman catcher Kendall Helbert, added two more insurance runs in the seventh inning to increase its lead to six runs. That was more than the Engineers would need in an eventual 6-0 victory.

The Judges used seven pitchers in the loss and no pitcher threw more than two innings.

First baseman Kyle Brenner '15 explained that the team's fundamentals were lacking in Friday's loss.

"We were trying to do too much and fell away from the little things," Brenner said.

Last Monday's game against Salem State was a different story for Brandeis. The Judges took the lead in the second inning when right fielder Max Hart '16 drove in second baseman Rob Trenk '15 on a groundout. Brandeis added another run in the fourth inning but Salem State responded with a run of their own to make the score 2-1.

The Judges then broke the game open with three runs in the top half of the fifth inning. Center fielder Liam O'Connor '16 hit an RBI double to score designated hitter Dan Gad '14 while Hart followed right after with a single to drive in a pair of runs.

Brandeis added another run to their lead in the sixth inning when third baseman Greg Heineman '16 hit a RBI triple to bring home first baseman Tom McCarthy '15.

Though Salem State responded in the bottom half of the sixth inning with a run, Brandeis kept their offense going, scoring two more runs in the seventh to put the game away at 8-2.

Brenner, who started the game, was dominant throughout, pitching eight innings, allowing just one earned run and striking out two batters to gain his second win of the season.
Brenner said that he simply focused on throwing strikes.

"I felt pretty good. It's difficult to make the transition from Florida to the cold in terms of your arm so I just tried to throw strikes and we hit when we needed to and played a pretty clean game defensively," Brenner said.

Though Brandeis has three games in as many days this week, Brenner said he is confident the team will play well in the upcoming games.

"We got a lot of reps this weekend in practice and are ready for hopefully a week full of games," Brenner said.

The Judges are back in action today in a road game against Tufts University at 3 p.m.