Harvard Pitchers Dominate Again

With a big weekend pair of home-and-away doubleheaders against Dartmouth looming ahead, its easy to overlook an innocuous non-conference game against Holy Cross.

But Harvard softball (25-14, 10-6 Ivy) relished yesterday’s decisive 3-0 win over the Crusaders (12-29) as extra practice before the Big Green showdown to decide the Ivy North Division winner.

“This is just a day for us to stay sharp. Get our pitchers some work seeing different batters, and our defense some work,” co-captain Bailey Vertovez said. “We didn’t really have many plays to make today. But, yeah, just stay sharp, get our bats swinging, and see some live pitching.”

Working with little run support, freshman pitcher Rachel Brown highlighted the day with her efficiency in the circle.

The righty threw just 51 pitches in four innings of work, allowing just one hit—no walks—and striking out seven.

Sitting at 182 strikeouts on the season, Brown is now tied with Tasha Cupp ’98 atop the single-season strikeout leaderboard.

But that outright record has to wait, as the rookie hurler was replaced in the fifth by classmate Julia Moore.

“Our game plan was to split the game between Rachel and Jules, and we did that,” Crimson coach Jenny Allard said. “[Brown] went four innings, Jules went three.”

Closing out the game, Moore had an equally auspicious line, allowing just one hit and one walk, while striking out two batters.

Moore got into a jam in her first inning of relief, the fifth. With just one out, Moore walked Holy Cross’s Gwen Reimer, then plunked Elizabeth Foley. Moore got the next batter to fly out to left field, and, though the Crusaders deftly executed a double steal to advance both runners to scoring position, Moore got the next Holy Cross hitter to pop a dinky lob shot to the pitcher’s circle for the third and final out.

The Crusaders struck again in the top of the seventh with the heart of their order at bat.

Leading off, Mandy Correale dumped a single into left-center.

But clean-up hitter Nicole Hitter lined a hot shot towards second that was wrangled in by rookie Jane Alexander, who quickly doubled up Correale at first.

Alexander also supplied some icing on Harvard’s win from the offensive side.

With the Crimson already up 2-0 in the fourth inning, freshman Marika Zumbro sliced a ball, which hugged the left-field line to stay fair, to land at second.

Then two batters and two outs later, Alexander peppered the opposite field wall for a double, scoring Zumbro.

The Harvard bats were slow to get started in the early part of the game, however.

On just one hit, the Crimson was able to capitalize on some wild pitches to work Alexander around the diamond to get on the board in the first inning.

“I thought we came out a little flat offensively,” Allard said.

“We needed to make adjustments quicker in the game. We got enough runs to win, but we wanted more offensive production.”

After rookie Whitney Shaw got hit by a pitch to start the third, the Crusaders replaced Melissa Pivonka with Katie Alexander in the circle.

The reliever got two quick outs—striking out junior Jennifer Francis and getting classmate Jessica Pledger, a Crimson photographer, to fly out—but third-year Melissa Schellberg, who is also a Crimson sports editor lined a deep double off the base of the wall to score Shaw from first.

“Our biggest goal today was to get on them early, score first, and keep the lead. And we did that,” Allard said.

Noticeably absent from the Harvard lineup yesterday were sophomores Emily Henderson and Ellen Macadam.

Henderson currently leads the Ivy League in steals with 14.

But in such an inconsequential game, Allard opted to give the pair the day off in preparation for the weekend’s games.

“We were just resting them,” Allard said of the sophomore duo. “They needed some rest for their muscles. They’re our speedsters, and we needed to rest their legs a little bit.”

The Crimson had been slated for a fairly full week of non-conference matchups, but due to rain, Tuesday’s game against Providence was postponed indefinitely.

The Crusaders requested that yesterday’s doubleheader be just one game, and Harvard obliged.

But as a result, the Crimson had just one game to work out its kinks this week before battling Dartmouth for the top spot in the division.

“One game was fine for today,” Allard conceded. “It gives us an opportunity to rest. Four games in a weekend is a lot.”

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.