Tartans Blast Five Home Runs in Doubleheader Split with Brandeis

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University softball team hit five home runs in a doubleheader split to end the four-game series with Brandeis University on Saturday, April 9 at Plum Senior High School. The Tartans took game one by a 5-1 score while the Judges held on to win 12-10 in game two. The Tartans are now 14-12 for the season and 5-6 in the UAA while the Judges moved to 17-11 and 5-7.

Game 1 – 5-1 Win

Sophomore Amanda Smith (New Cumberland, Pa. / Trinity) pitched a complete game with a career-best 13 strikeouts to win her fourth game of the season. Two of the Tartans' five home runs came in game one with junior Piper Johnson (Riverside, Calif. / Martin Luther King) clearing one over the left-center field fence for a 3-0 Tartan lead in the fourth inning.

Graduate student Jolie Fujita broke up the shutout for Smith with an RBI double in the top of the fifth.

After senior Emily Song (Mount Arlington, N.J. / Roxbury) doubled to right field to lead off the fifth inning, senior Megan Hu (Katy, Texas / Seven Lakes) hit her first career home run to give the Tartans a 5-1 advantage.

Smith then retired six of the final seven batters for the victory

Game 2 – 12-10 Loss

Junior Izzy Bermudez (Austin, Texas / Dripping Springs) hit two home runs, and her third of the series, to knock in five runs for the Tartans. Song also homered in the game for the third time in her career.

The Tartans got on the board first with Bermudez's first home run in the second inning, a two-run shot just inside the left-field foul pole. Carnegie Mellon went up 3-0 in the inning when freshman Libby Eichberger (Aurora, Ill. / Metea Valley) singled up the middle to plate senior Audrey Pederson (Bedford, N.H. / Bedford) who hit a triple after the homer by Bermudez.

The Judges took a 4-3 lead in the top of the third but a two-out single by senior Summer Faille (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Westlake) scored Song who reached on an error to start the inning.

With Brandeis leading 10-4 in the fifth inning, Song hit her home run to left field to make it 10-6. Later in the fifth, Bermudez rocked her second four-bag hit of the game, this time a three-run shot to make it 10-9.

The Judges tacked on a couple of insurance runs in the top of the sixth inning to make it 12-9 and held on to win 12-10 after sophomore Kiera Boucher (Ridgewood, N.J. / Ridgewood) reached on an error with two outs that scored Eichberger who singled earlier in the inning.

The Tartans will host Washington University in St. Louis for a four-game series starting with one game on Friday, April 15, two on Saturday, April 16, and one on Sunday, April 17.