The softball team knows a little bit about ups and downs.

The Bulldogs (14-16, 3-5 Ivy) began their weekend with a stunning comeback win over Columbia (12-20, 2-6) and continued on to sweep the doubleheader against the Lions in the nightcap but could not bring the momentum Sunday versus Penn (9-17-1, 4-4).

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PITCHING, HEROICS SECURE WINS

In Saturday’s opener, the Elis entered the bottom of the seventh inning down, 4-2, before they mounted the relentless comeback. The inning started with second baseman Katie Yanagisawa’s ’11 double and right fielder Lauren Huddleston ’10 continued with a single. Yanagisawa scored on a Katie Edwards ’09 single before first baseman and captain Megan Enyeart ’09 was intentionally walked.

The decision proved to be costly as Meg Johnson ’12 stepped to the dish and delivered a game-winning two-run single to score Huddleston and pinch-runner Chelsey Locarno ’12 to give Yale the 5-4 win.

“We were hitting the whole game, but finally came through in the end,” Enyeart said. “I think it gave us some extra confidence and acted as a booster for us in the second game.”

Edwards added, “Any comeback win is huge — it’s like our version of a game winning jumper at the buzzer in overtime.”

Starting pitcher Rebecca Wojciak ’09 got the victory for Yale in the circle, allowing four runs — none earned. Four Bulldogs had two hits each and the team finished with 12 for the contest.

The momentum carried over to the second game of the twinbill as the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back. Deanna DiBernardi ’09 and Kayla Kuretich ’10 held the visitors in check and combined for a six-hit shutout. Johnson and third baseman Mariclaire Rebman ’11 each had two hits to lead the Elis in their 2-0 win to complete the sweep.

FALLING SHORT

The next day was the polar opposite for the Bulldogs.

On Sunday, Yale hosted Penn and was dealt some of their own medicine. In game one, Yale could not string any hits together off Quaker hurler Jessie Lupardus, who allowed seven hits.

The Bulldogs had the leadoff hitter on base five of the seven innings but could not capitalize and Penn was able to score in the fifth and sixth innings to win 3-0.

In game two, the Bulldogs were the ones with a comfortable lead late in the contest. Up, 6-1, heading into the sixth inning, the Elis surrendered seven runs to the visitors in the last two innings to fall victim to a huge comeback victory.

Enyeart got things going for the Bulldogs with her second home run in as many days to give Yale a 3-0 lead. Penn followed with a run in the second but the Bulldogs continued their onslaught with three more runs in the bottom of the second to run the lead up to 6-1.

Penn began the comeback with four runs in the top of the sixth, Yale responded with one in the bottom half but it was not enough. Kelsey Wolfe’s three-run in the top of the seventh made it 8-7, Penn. Wolfe finished the day 3-4 with five RBIs.

“Being up 6-1 and then not coming out on top is frustrating, but we can’t let it get to us,” Enyeart said. “We need to find something to take from it instead. This should inspire us not to be satisfied no matter how many runs we have. We need to score runs consistently through the game so this type of thing doesn’t happen again.”

Yale is off until Saturday when the team heads to Cambridge for a four-game series against Harvard (19-9, 5-3).