WORCESTER, MASS. (taken from a Clark University press release) – The Brandeis University softball team concluded the week above .500 after splitting a doubleheader at Clark University today. The Judges dropped the opener, 6-0, before rallying to capture the nightcap, 8-6. With the split, Brandeis moved to 11-10, while the Cougars are 10-10.

First-year Melissa Traft (Milton, Mass.) allowed five hits and struck out one to earn the complete game victory for Clark.

Lauren Blake (Oakland, Me.) picked up two hits, while Lauren Ackein (Tacoma, Wash.) and Heather Warren (Upland, Calif.) drove in a pair of runs to lead the Cougars.

Blake led off the game with a double to centerfield and later scored on a Brandeis infield error to give Clark an early 1-0 lead. In a five-run fifth inning, Ackein and Warren had two-run base hits and Darcy Kurashige-Elliott (Berkeley, Cali.) capped the explosion with an RBI single.

Kaitlin Streilein (Point Pleasant, N.J.), Natalie Volpe (Southington, Conn.), Danielle Mayer (Larkspur, Calif.), Samantha Worth (Londonderry, N.H.) and Emily Vaillette (Milford, N.H.) finished the game with one hit each.

Vaillette took the loss for Brandeis. She gave up seven hits, four earned runs, while striking out two.

In the nightcap, the Judges took advantage of a Clark infield error to take a 1-0 edge in the first inning.

Clark answered with five runs in the bottom of the frame. After Blake singled and Ackein reached on an error, Warren blasted her fourth homerun of the season and second in as many days, for a 3-1 advantage. Joanna Clark (Windham, Me.) added to Clark’s lead (5-1) with a two-run single.

Brandeis got five runs back in the fifth inning on RBI hits from Streilein and Volpe, a fielder’s choice by Mayer, a Clark error and Worth’s groundout to lead by one (6-5). The Cougars knotted the score in the bottom half of the frame on Kurashige-Elliott’s RBI double.

In the top of the sixth, the Judges took the lead on a wild pitch that scored Amelia Schimmel (Oakland, Calif.) and an errant throw that brought home Streilein.

Warren, who took the loss on the mound, had three hits and drove in three runs to lead Clark.

Streilein led Brandeis’ 11-hit attack with three hits and an RBI. Volpe and Schimmel added two hits.

Volpe (4 H, 5 Ks) got the win for Brandeis.