FORT MYERS, Fla. – With wins over St. Olaf (3-2) and UMass Dartmouth (5-1) on Friday, the Amherst College softball team will return from the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic with a perfect 12-0 record. 

Already off to the best start in team history, the Lord Jeffs are knocking on the door of the program's longest win streak. The 1998 Amherst squad won 13 straight, a mark the Jeffs will look to surpass when they host WPI in a doubleheader on Wednesday, Mar. 28. 

Trailing 2-0 against St. Olaf in Friday's first game, Amherst scored all three of its runs in the sixth inning and held on for the win. Idalia Friedson '15 began the rally with a leadoff double, and Theresa Kelley '13 soon tied the game with a two-run triple. After Arielle Doering '14 walked, Kaitlin Silkowitz '14 brought home Kelley with a single for the go-ahead run.

Friedson went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, while Kelley earned the win with another complete-game effort. Only one of the two runs Kelley surrendered was earned, as she struck out 12, walked three and allowed six hits in seven innings.

Amherst also had to play from behind in the second game after UMass Dartmouth held a 1-0 lead after the first frame. The Jeffs scored four in the third inning, highlighted by RBI singles from Carolyn Miller '14, Kelley and Alyssa Sherwill '15. Amherst added a run in the fifth when Miller led off with a triple and scored on a groundout by Kelley. 

Doering pitched all seven innings for the Jeffs, striking out 10 and walking four. The run she allowed in the first inning was unearned, as the Corsairs finished with only four hits on the day.

Amherst outscored opponents by a 39-38 margin during the 2011 Gene Cusic Classic, but the Lord Jeffs improved their run differential to an astonishing 71-21 this year. Nine teams were held to two runs or fewer, with only Wisconsin-Oshkosh scoring more than three (W 5-4). Amherst's offense, meanwhile, scored at least three runs in all 12 games and chalked up five runs or more seven times. 

After such an incredible start, head coach Sue Everden has bumped her career win total to 211, with number 200 coming last Saturday in a season-opening victory against Worcester State. Everden has earned 584 wins as the head coach of Amherst's volleyball program and also picked up a combined 69 victories during her early coaching years with the squash and lacrosse programs, giving her a combined 864 wins as a head coach at Amherst. 

ST. OLAF BOX SCORE

UMASS DARTMOUTH BOX SCORE