CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The MIT softball team won against Brandeis University for the first time since the 2005 season on Wednesday afternoon, taking the first game with a score of 2-1 and the second in 10-2. Sophomore Sarah Van Belleghem (Los Gatos, Calif.) led the Engineers with five runs throughout the day, going 4-for-6 with two RBIs. She scored MIT's only two runs in the first game. The Cardinal and Gray are now 19-13 for the season, while the Judges dipped to 23-17.

With the second win, MIT tied the institute record for most wins in a season. The last time the Engineers won this many games was in 1984.

In the first game, the score remained tied at 0-0 until the bottom of the third, when Van Belleghem scored off a single by freshman Tori Jensen (Holliston, Mass.). At the top of the fourth, Brandeis scored its only run of the game, tying the score at 1-1. Van Belleghem was back at it again at the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring off a single by senior Anna Christensen (Vernon Hills, Ill.). In the final two innings, the Engineers only allowed two hits.

Van Belleghem went 2-for-3 with two runs and freshman Alexandra Marshall (Glen Head, N.Y.) went 1-for-1. Sophomore Ellie Fodor (Trenton, Mich.) earned the win in seven innings, allowing seven hits and only one run, while striking out eight batters. She is now 11-6 for the season.

Senior Leah Alpert (Needham, Mass.) got MIT on the board at the bottom of the second inning of the second game when she scored the first run of the game. At the bottom of the third, Van Belleghem scored off a Jensen single and Christensen followed soon after when sophomore Kelly Wang (La Canada, Calif.) doubled. Brandeis' Cori Coleman scored at the top of the next inning, still preserving an Engineer lead of 3-1.

Off a single by Van Belleghem in the fourth, both freshman Alex Burgess (Chelmsford, Mass.) and sophomore K.K. Wopat (Edwardsville, Ill.) were able to make it home, and Marshall made it home soon after with her first run of the day off a single by Jensen.  At the top of the fifth, Amanda Genovese scored the Judges' second run of the game off an error by the first baseman. In the fifth and final inning, off a double by Christensen, both Burgess and Van Belleghem made it home, ending the game with a score of 10-2.

Van Belleghem went 2-for-3 with three runs and 2 RBIs, while Burgess went 2-for-3 for two runs and Marshall went 1-for-1 with one run and one RBI. Marshall was at the mound for all four innings, earning her seventh win for her first collegiate season, allowing seven hits and one run and striking out five batters.

MIT will return to Springfield College for the second weekend in a row this Saturday, May 4 for game six of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) against Wheaton College at 12:00 p.m.