Four sheets of paper are proudly taped on the door of Julie Brzezinski’s office exclaiming her newest achievement, with a character on each sheet: 5-0-0-!
On March 27 the head coach of Fairfield’s softball team earned her 500th career win when the Stags defeated Long Island University 7-5 in the second game of a double-header played in Stony Brook, N.Y, joining women’s basketball coach Dianne Nolan as the second Fairfield coach to join the exclusive club in less than two months.
Fairfield relied heavily on catcher/infielder Erin Frank ’08 who tallied four RBIs and three hits, one of which was a three-run homer. Frank was rewarded with MAAC Offensive Player of the Week award.
Brzeznski has also received MAAC honors; she was named coach of the year in both 2004 and 2002. Currently in her ninth season at Fairfield, she has posted a 255-225-3 record and led the team to the MAAC regular-season title in three of the past four seasons.
“This weekend has been really big, the 500th personally, and the team as a whole has been better and better,” Brzeznski said, “but nothing will measure up to winning the MAAC tourney. We get there but we haven’t won it, but maybe this group, this year will get it. They’re a great group and hopefully they can do it.”
Frank agreed with her coach’s assessment: “I’ve been really impressed with our team so far,” Frank said, “we’re not playing to our full potential 100 percent of the time, but we aren’t just accepting that fact and throwing games away. We’ve been sticking it out and pulling through in the late innings which, I think, shows that our team has a lot of character.”
That character has helped the team to achieve their 17-7 record. The team was also selected as the best in the league in a pre-season poll, and so far, expectations have been met although they have yet to play a conference match-up.
Pitcher Tracy Sylvestre ’07 notes that unlike their coach, the team takes a little while to get into their best.
“I think it’s awesome that Coach Brzezinski reached such a milestone and that she was able to achieve it so quickly,” Sylvestre said. And as for the team, “we have not yet peaked so hopefully we will be at our finest when we begin conference play in the middle of April.”
The team may already be in better shape than they think.
“The pitching’s getting better and better,” Brzezinski said. “Defense is playing good ball and our hitting is strong. You have to get all three things going at once: defense, hitting and pitching. You have that going and you’re doing all right.”
In describing her team, Brzezinski repeats the old softball saying that games can be won or lost simply based on pitching, defense, and timely hitting.
And judging by recent results, and by the raw talent that the Stags have on their roster, that formula could lead the team to the MAAC title they just missed out on a year ago.
But Brzezinski, in her formula for winning, omits one key factor that almost certainly should be included: coaching.
“She works really hard for every win she can get, and not even for her own pride, she just wants to see her players succeed and do their best; and you can really see the selflessness in her coaching style,” Frank said.
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