Batswomen's One Hit Good Enough to Top Wheaton

The Harvard softball team kept its record unblemished with a 4-3 victory over Wheaton yesterday afternoon, but it wasn't what you would call a straightforward win.

In fact, the batswomen, now 5-0, triumphed on a day fraught with striking contrtasts.

As the game began at 4 p.m., the snow clumped around the base of the backstop at Soldier's Field-evidence of Sunday night's freak storm-looked disconcertingly like the lime lining the basepaths.

The sun playing peek-a-boo from behind scattered cloudy, seemed unsure of whether it was supposed to be overlooking a game of softball or heading back into premature hibernation.

And the players on the field seemed to be having a little trouble deciding just what was going on.

The Odd nature of the game manifested itself best in the bottom of the seven, when Crimson freshman Sharon Hayes won the game with a leadoff home run.

Rounding out a day of contrasts perfectly, Hayes' blast to right-center was, incredibly, Harvard's only hit of the afternoon.

Other contrasts abounded

The Wheaton pitcher, Michelle L'Heurcus, the fastest yet to face the Crimson, did not allow a hit until the final inning, set carved out a bundle of troche for herself by walking eleven batters and hitting one.

Harvard's defense was far from stellar, committing only one error but making several easy infield chances look difficult.

One the other hand, there were a few outstanding plays, notably a somersaulting grab of a foul fly by left-fielder Mary MacKinnon in the first, and a diving grab of a soft liner up the middle by second-baseman Mary Baldauf in the sixth.

The Cantabs demonstrated some speed on the basepaths, swiping three bases-and also made some running blunders, like getting picked off first for a double-play on a fly bal.

The biggest irons of all, however was that the Crimson almost lost this game.

Despite a below peak, hitless performance, the squad coasted into the top of the seventh on the 3-1 lead it had held since the third. The possibility of a loss seemed as remote as the notion that a team ought to get at least one hit if it wants to win a game.

Silly possibility, silly notion.

Not so silly, however, to Wheaton, which came up with two runs against Harvard pitcher Gerri Rubin, forcing the hosts to bat in the bottom of the seventh.

At which point Hayes stepped to the plate and knocked L' Heureux's first offering out of the park.

"The kinds always seem to find a way," Harvard Coach John Wentzell said. "It wasn't pretty today, but we keep rolling."

The squad rolled to an early 2-0 lead in the first, when L' Heureux loaded the bases on walks and fielder's choice ground balls. Then, with two down, she walked both Lisa Rowning and Rubin, allowing two Crimson runners to trot home.

Wheaton's big inning, the seventh, came as Rubin was tiring. The junior hurler had thrown 78 pitches entering the frame, and opened up by walking the first batter.

She yielded three more hits in the inning, and by the time third baseman * gobbled up a grounder and raced to the sack to make the force out that ended the inning. Wheaton had battled back to be the game at three.

"I didn't expect to have to go to the seventh," said Wentzell, whose squad has held its lead in the final inning of the two previous games it has hosted.

Hayes' homer, however, provided a quick and unexpected, solution to the Crimson's dilemma.

Then again, on a day like yesterday. It's hard to call anything unexpected.