Batswomen Sweep

Good coaches will take a win any way they get them--whether their team jumps ahead early, or comes from behind late in the game.

Yesterday, the Harvard softball team gave Coach John Wentzell each kind of victory in a twinbill sweep of Bentley College in Waltham.

The Crimson (8-7 overall, 1-3 Ivy) took an early lead in the opener which it won easily, 4-0, but had to stage a dramatic six-run rally in its last at-bat to take the nightcap, 11-7.

"It was a good afternoon for us, Wentzell said. "We were on a three-game losing streak."

Pitching Ace

Behind the strong pitching of Lora Rowning, Harvard never worried about Bentley in the first game. Rowning yielded only four hits and struck out six batters on her way to a shutout.

"Lora did a super job," Wentzell said. "She was really on. She was throwing hard."

The Crimson scored a pair of runs in the first inning when Liz Crowley doubled in Co-Captain Mary Baldauf, and scored on Co-Captain Sharon Hayes' double. Hayes was 3-for-4 in the opener, and drove in Nancy Prior for another run in the fifth.

The other Harvard run scored when Beth Reilly knocked in Crowley with a single in the fourth.

The Crimson jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the nightcap as well. Baldauf and Crowley both walked to start the game and scored on a triple by Crowley, who had four RBI's in the game.

But Bentley wasn't about to let Harvard win the second game as easily as the first. The hosts reached Crimson starter Lee Polikoff for three runs in the first inning and another four runs in the second. But the sophomore hurler settled down and shut out Bentley the rest of the way.

"Lee had a tough start," Wentzell said. "After that she shut them down. It enabled us to scratch away at the lead."

Harvard tallied in the fourth and fifth innings, to cut the lead to 7-5 as it entered the final inning. Brita Lind and Nancy Colbert led off with walks, and Baldauf singled to load the bases.

Prior blasted a two-strike single to score Lind, and Crowley's bases-loaded walk tied the game. Hayes then hit a hard shot which Baldauf scored on when the third baseman's throw home hit her. With two outs, Ellen Cox hit a big two-run single to give the Crimson all the runs it needed for the sweep.