The softball team was spent in a Tuesday doubleheader against Western Connecticut State, falling 8-2 in the first game and 8-1 in the five-inning nightcap. The team now sits at 9-12 on the season heading into this weekend’s three-game series against Williams.

After a scoreless first inning, the Colonials used a leadoff home run to go ahead 1-0 in the second and tacked on three more in the third behind a pair of doubles. After a leadoff single by pitcher Chelsea Swete ’11 in the bottom of the third inning, Meaghan Dendy ’10 doubled—extending her hitting streak to 20 games—and co-captain Molly O’Connell ’09 was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with no outs. Western Connecticut induced a double-play grounder from catcher Taylor Zavadsky ’10, but Swete scored on the play to cut Wesleyan’s deficit to 4-1. Following a walk to cleanup hitter Talia Bernstein ’11, Anu Rimal ’11 struck out swinging to end the inning.

Both teams scored once in the fourth. After Western Connecticut regained its four-run cushion in the top of the frame, Wesleyan used more station-to-station base running to slice the Colonials’ lead to 5-2. With one out, Chrissy Bello ’12 reached on an error by the Colonial shortstop as Sam Epstein ’12 and Swete followed with singles to load the bases. Dendy reached on a fielder’s choice to third that brought home Bello, but O’Connell struck out to end the frame.

Western Connecticut tacked on another in the sixth and two in the seventh to extend its lead to 8-2. After a 1-2-3 fifth and sixth, Wesleyan put two runners on with two out in the seventh, but the Colonials got a fielder’s choice grounder from Zavadsky to seal the win.

The Colonials again jumped on the board with a leadoff home run in the second inning in game two, while holding Wesleyan to one hit through the first three innings. Western Connecticut exploded for five runs in the fourth, extending its lead to 6-0. Wesleyan got one back in the bottom of the inning on a Rimal double that scored O’Connell, who had singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. The Colonials used a two-run shot to pad their lead to 8-1 in the fifth; it would be the final scoring in the game, as Wesleyan loaded the bases with two out in the bottom of the fifth but did not score.

The game was called after the fifth due to darkness. The doubleheader had been moved from Danbury to Middletown due to impending rain.

The losses snapped Wesleyan’s four-game winning streak, but O’Connell feels the experience the Cardinals gained against the regional power will benefit them heading into the Williams series.

“Western is a solid team, and it’s always good to face a solid team in preparation to play against a tough NESCAC opponent,” O’Connell said. “Despite the losses, facing Western gave us a good opportunity to see some good pitching. We head into the weekend against Williams confident about the things we did well against Western.”

Williams enters the weekend 2-1 in NESCAC West play—having won two out of three against Middlebury, who Wesleyan swept last weekend—and 6-9 overall. Wesleyan took three of the four meetings between the teams last season, including a 13-3 victory in the NESCAC Championship that eliminated the Ephs, and O’Connell expects the Cardinals’ dominance to continue.

“We are looking to sweep Williams this weekend,” she said. “Doing so will put us in very good standing in both the NESCAC West and in the Little Three. The series is always a battle, but we are very confident playing our game. When we play Wesleyan softball, we are very hard to beat.”