Brown Takes Softball Title

At the closing ceremonies of the Ivy League softball tournament yesterday afternoon. Harvard Coach John Wentzell presented Brown pitcher Tracy Dickerman with the tournament MVP trophy and then awarded the championship cup to the entire Bruin team. He probably should have given Dickerman both awards.

The sophomore hurler won all six of the Bruins' games and tossed two shutouts in the process, proving herself both durable and unhittable. Unfortunately, Dickerman opened her awesome weekend against the Harvard nine, and blanked the tourney hosts, 10-0.

Crimson pitcher Ellen Jakovic took her cue from the Bruin mound ace, and in the second game of the marathon weekend, hurled her first career shutout for a 10-0 win over Cornell.

Jakovic also won the Sunday final against Yale, 30-10, as the Crimson went 3-3 and finished fourth out of the seven-team field. Staff ace Val Romero compiled a disapointing 0-3 record, but as Jakovic pointed out later. "Val pitched really well and just got some bad breaks. If just a couple of hits had gone through, she would have had three wins."

Romero's contest with Dickerman would have required a miracle-not just a couple of hits, but in Saturday afternoon's 7-4 loss to Princeton, the Crimson left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh and final inning.

And on Sunday morning, Romero took a 5-2 lead over Penn into the seventh inning. When the Quakers rallied for a 6-5 win.

After finishing third in last year's tourney, the Harvard players found the 1982 results disappointing. But for those who have followed the five-year-old program from the beginning, humiliating the Elis was more than satisfying.

"I think they won it 25-0 the first time we played, and the next year it was like 15-1," recalled former team Captain Betty Ippolito, who made the trip down from Maine for the weekend. "Last year, when we finally best them, 5-3, it was the biggest upset of the tournament. We were the toast of the banquet that night."

This year, the Cornell squad made its first tourney appearance and received enthusiastic support from its rivals. Only a club team, the Big Red had to sell M&Ms to pay the $425 tournament entry fee and then drove to Cambridge in three private cars. But once they arrived, the Ithaca nine proved they can play with any varsity team.

While finishing fifth with wins over Yale and Dartmouth, Cornell nearly upset the second-place squad from Princeton.

As the Harvard squad cheered them on, the Big Red players tallied nine runs off the Tigers; number-two pitcher and forced the tourney runner-ups to send Angie Dennis, their All-Ivy ace, to the mound. Princeton eventually won the contest, 16-9, but Cornell had clearly earned the respect of its opponents.

"We are really pleased that we made a showing at all after all the work it took to get here," team co-Captain Kathy Stratton said. "Whether we get the support from our athletic department or not, we're going to keep coming to the tournament."

The Ivy athletic directors decided earlier this year to cancel championship events and replace them with round robin competition, but their softball squads don't receive enough financial backing to travel to all the other Ivy schools. And so, unlike most Ivy women's athletic tournaments, the softball teams will probably still attend league championships for the next few years.

"The general consensus is that we'd like to retain the tournament." Harvard's Wentzell said. "Considering where softball is now, it's just not feasible for us to go round robin."

Tournament Finishers

1.Brown

2.Princeton

3.Penn

4.Harvard

5.Cornell

6.Yale

7.Dartmouth