Softball Makes First-Ever Tournament

People don't often strive to be second best, but in the case of the Harvard softball team, second best was a strong accomplishment.

Especially when one considers that Ivy League champion Princeton was ranked in the nation's Top 25 throughout the season and advanced through the NCAA regionals all the way to the College World Series.

That left six other schools, including Harvard, to battle for second place in the Ancient Eight, and the Crimson won it. In addition, Harvard qualified for its first-ever postseason tournament, and it took second place out of four teams in the ECAC Tournament on May 13-14.

An inaugural postseason experience, a team record for wins in a season (28) and a rookie head coach who knew how get the best efforts from her players all added up to a very successful campaign for the Crimson (28-14,9-3 Ivy) League).

"We are proud of our team--we all are," freshman catcher Kara Hartl said. "We got the runner-up in the ECAC, and this is from a team who wasn't expected to do much of any thing [this season]."

Harvard had struggled to a 18-25 (4-6) record one year ago. While a lot of the same talent was there, the results weren't.

That all changed this season with the addition of head coach Jenny Allard--who is Harvard's first full-time softball coach--and a slew of young talent. Allard demanded a lot from her players, and the results showed.

"We worked hard this year," Allard said. "For us to be invited and to go postseason this year was tremendous."

There were many highlights, but nothing really came close to the never-ending doubleheader at Yale back on April 9 in New Haven. In game one, neither team could score for hours and they went into extra innings--10 of them.

Harvard scored three in the top of the 17th held on for a 3-1 win. In the nightcap, which had to be continued the next day due to darkness, the two teams took it easier. Harvard won 3-2 in only 12 innings.

Freshman pitchers Tasha Cupp and Heather Brown were practically unhittable in shutting down a potent Eli attack. That weekend enabled the Crimson to finish second in the league, as Yale's. only other Ivy League losses came at the hands of Princeton.

It was a memorable season all-around. Harvard did things it never had before, including playing in the snow at Brown (the two teams split that twinbill).

In one stretch between April 20 and May 13, the Crimson won a 18 of 19 games, including 4-0 and 2-0 shutouts of Providence and Rutgers at the ECAC Tournament, which was held at Rutgers.

Providence came back to win both games the following day in the championship to claim the title, including a nine-inning 6-2 win in the finale. But the despite that disappointment, it certainly was a top-notch season.

"I wanted us to leave the field holding our heads [up] because we had an excellent year," Allard said.

One of the main reasons for Harvard's success was Cupp. The rookie compiled a 14-5 record, striking out 101 battlers--a Harvard single-season record--in 138 innings and posting a 1.72 ERA. In her first 24 innings in the two days of the ECAC Tournament, she allowed only three earned runs and threw a one-hitter and no-hitter.

With the exception of the Princeton weekend--which were 11-0 and 6-2 blowouts--Cupp breezed through the Ivy League as well, as did Brown. Brown was another solid presence on the mound, going 11-4 with a 2.10 ERA in 106-and-two-thirds innings.

Of course, to make the battery work, one needs a strong catcher to go along with the pitchers, and Harvard had that, too, in Hartl--another freshman. Hartl was especially on fire over the first half of the season, getting herself into the top 10 in the nation in batting. She finished second on the Crimson with a .347 batting average.

But nobody came close to the performance of junior shortstop Amy Reinhard. Also a starter on the women's basketball team, Reinhard hit .394 overall, belted three homers and broke the Harvard single-season records for hits and stolen bases (56 and 25, respectively) and career.

Reinhard led the Crimson in 13 offensive categories. In the addition to her bat, she saved the Crimson many runs with her slick glove and gun of an arm.

Reinhard was Harvard's only first team All-Ivy League selection, while Cupp, sophomore third baseman Katina Lee and sophomore outfielder Melissa Kreuder, who was second on the team with 24 RBI's and fourth with a .315 batting average, made the second team.

And all of those players will be back next year and hungry for more.

"They should have than expectation," Allard said. "They should want to go to postseason [next year]."