In the first game of the baseball team's doubleheader at Babson College last Saturday, the Judges fell behind 3-0 in the first inning but overcame the deficit to win 5-4. In the second game, however, the team was unable to pull out of a similar hole.The Judges lost the second game of the doubleheader 8-7 after falling behind 4-1 in the second inning. The doubleheader split gives Brandeis a 13-19 record this season after a 2-3 week that saw the team lose to Worcester Polytechnic Institute last Wednesday and Johnson & Wales University last Thursday but defeat Salem State College. All three of those games were played at home.

In the second game against Babson, Brandeis struck first with a run in the top of the first inning off an RBI single by left fielder Jon Chu '12.

Babson tied it in the bottom of the inning and scored three more in the second inning as starting pitcher David Packard '09 allowed the first five Beaver batters to reach base before recording an out. Packard did manage to get three straight outs at the end of the inning to limit the damage, aided by Brandeis catcher Artie Posch '10 throwing out Babson centerfielder junior Peter O'Toole while he was trying to steal third base, but gave up six runs in 2 1/3 innings of work overall.

"From the beginning, [Packard] really didn't find the strike zone," first baseman Pat Nicholson '11 said.

The game against Babson was the second start of Packard's college career, as he is traditionally a reliever. Nicholson said coach Pete Varney started Packard to give some of the regular starters a rest in the team's fifth game in four days. Packard came into the game against Babson having appeared in five games as a relief pitcher with a 24.30 ERA, mainly a result of giving up six runs in an inning of work against Hastings College Feb. 19, a game the Judges won 19-15.

Alex Tynan '12 relieved Packard, and limited the Beavers to one more run in the inning, but the Judges were still behind 6-3. It remained that way until the fifth inning, when an RBI groundout by third baseman Tony Deshler '11 and a passed ball helped Brandeis pull within 6-5. The Judges then tied it in the top of the seventh on an RBI single by Nicholson and took their first lead since the first inning on an RBI single by right fielder Andrew Cohen '11 in the top of the ninth inning.

As in the first inning, the lead would not last, as the Beavers scored twice in the bottom of the inning off Brandeis reliever Justin Duncombe '11. A throwing error by Duncombe on a pickoff attempt allowed the tying run to reach third base, and an error by shortstop Julian Cavin '12 on what would have been the third out of the inning allowed the inning to continue and Babson to score the winning run.

"Things like [the errors] just lead to extra outs and extra outs lead to runs, so it's just unfortunate we couldn't win that game," Nicholson said.

In the first game, Brandeis fell behind 3-0 in the first inning but scored one run in the second inning and three in the third to take a 4-3 lead. After Babson tied it in the bottom of the sixth inning, Brandeis scored the game-winning run on an RBI double by designated hitter Drake Livada '10 that scored Cavin from second base.

"Coming back in that game was pretty big," Nicholson said. "We tried to carry that into the second game [against Babson] but it just didn't work out."

Last Friday against Salem State, starting pitcher Drew Brzozowski '10 pitched 7 2/3 innings and gave up just two runs in a 9-2 Judges win that snapped a six-game losing streak.

Brandeis scored first in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI single from Livada and a sacrifice fly from Nicholson and never trailed the rest of the game.

"That was huge coming off a bunch of hard losses [for the team]," Nicholson said. "Having [Brzozowski] go up there and throw eight innings of real strong baseball was huge for us, and I'm just glad that we gave him some run support so we actually end up winning the game."

Brandeis next plays today at Amherst College at 3:30 p.m.

They play again tomorrow at home against University of Massachusetts-Boston at 3 p.m.