The Lafayette softball team traveled to Washington, D.C. over the last weekend of spring break to play in the Buff and Blue Challenge at George Washington University. Lafayette came in third place in the tournament, beating the Brown University Bears in a consolation game by a score of 13-4 in five innings. Seven innings are usually played in a game, unless a team goes up by eight runs after the end of the fourth inning.

On Friday and Saturday, the team played a doubleheader each day, with the consolation game taking place on Sunday. Friday saw the Leopards go up against Siena and George Washington, losing 7-6 and 9-0 (in 5 innings), respectively. On Saturday, Lafayette took on Brown and George Washington with Lafayette losing 4-3 and 7-6, respectively. Three of the four losses given to the Leopards over the weekend were by one run.

At this point in the season, the Leopards have a 2-17 record that is skewed because of a strong preseason schedule, according to senior captain Morgan Biddle. Biddle, a center fielder, affirmed in a postgame email that the 13-4 win over Brown was a good sign for the team going forward.

“We finally started to hit our stride this last weekend, so going into Patriot League play people should be looking out for a lot more scores like our win against Brown,” Biddle wrote.

Every player in the game that came up to the plate against Brown got on base at least once–junior catcher Maddie Wensel even went 4 for 4 at the plate–and every batter that started the game crossed the plate at least once.

After some tough losses to begin the season and a set of one-run losses in their games on Friday and Saturday, the Leopards were able to outplay the Brown Bears. The consolation game was also a big win for first-year head coach Caitlyn de la Haba.

De la Haba, a recent Villanova grad, has taken over the team after 10 years of losing records in conference play for the Leopards. Assistant coach Corinne Ozanne also joined the Leopards this year. 

“The new coaches have been amazing,” Biddle said. “They came in with a fresh perspective and a fire in their hearts for us to improve.”

De la Haba will be looking to end the softball team’s nine-season streak of losing records in Patriot League play.