Harvard Wins Two Against State Rival

Although the Harvard softball team took a break from conference play yesterday, it certainly didn’t lose any momentum.

The Crimson (11-15, 3-1 Ivy) traveled to Worcester, Mass. for a doubleheader with in-state rival Holy Cross (6-18, 2-2 Patriot) and swept the Crusaders, 9-6 and 6-3, at Freshman Field.

Junior Ellen Macadam led the offense with a 5-for-7, 4-RBI performance, while sophomores Rachel Brown and Julia Moore took the wins on the mound.

“I thought we came out hard,” sophomore Whitney Shaw said. “We scored a lot of runs, we had a lot of hits. Our offense is kind of getting into a groove now, which was great, and it was backed up by solid pitching.”

HARVARD 6, HOLY CROSS 3

The Crimson plated a pair of runs in the first inning and never looked back, cruising to a 6-3 win in yesterday’s nightcap.

Macadam led the game off with a single to left field and promptly stole second.

The junior then scored the game’s first run on co-captain Melissa Schellberg’s RBI single to right.

“[Ellen had] been struggling a little bit before today, and she came out with fire in her eyes,” co-captain Margaux Black said. “She came out ready to smash the ball, and that’s exactly what she did.”

Schellberg, who is also a Crimson sports editor, then came around to score on a passed ball to give Harvard the early 2-0 lead.

Holy Cross got one back in the bottom of the inning on a Keeley Seniuk RBI double, but the Crimson rebounded in the top of the second.

Again, Macadam proved to be the catalyst for the Harvard offense, plating senior Jennifer Francis with a sacrifice fly. Junior Emily Henderson came around to score on the same play thanks to an error by Crusader pitcher Katie Alexander.

Moore sparkled for the next four innings, allowing just one hit and one walk after the first.

“Julia Moore had an awesome game,” Black said. “She pitched lights out—she was fantastic. She really shut them down.”

Francis led off the sixth with a homer to right, and Macadam came around to score later that inning. After the junior doubled to center field, senior Stephanie Krysiak brought her home with an infield single, pushing the advantage to 6-1.

Holy Cross tightened the score in the bottom of the inning, when Erin Fleming and Sam Fregenti hit a home run apiece off sophomore Mari Zumbro, who was making her first pitching appearance of the year.

But 6-3 was as close as the Crusaders would get, as Black pitched a scoreless seventh to earn the save.

HARVARD 9, HOLY CROSS 6

The Crimson showed no signs of travel fatigue in the first game of the doubleheader, opening up a 6-0 lead in the first four innings.

With Krysiak aboard with one out in the first, the Harvard bats went to work, as Macadam launched one of her three doubles of the game to plate Krysiak.

Macadam scored one batter later on Shaw’s RBI single, and the sophomore came around herself on a Francis fielder’s choice.

“It really just starts the game off right if you score runs in the first inning,” Black said. “It shuts the other team down, and if you can keep scoring…and keep putting the pressure on, then the other team will just fall.”

Krysiak made it a 4-0 game in the top of the second, doubling home freshman Kassy Shiotani, who reached base on a leadoff single.

The Crimson tacked on another pair in the top of the fourth, with freshman Mariel Sena striking first. Sena singled to lead off the inning and then crossed the plate on a Holy Cross error.

Krysiak, who reached base on that error, was then brought around by another Macadam RBI double.

Though Brown had a gem going through the fourth—allowing no baserunners while striking out six-straight batters—she faltered in the fifth.

The Crusaders crossed the plate six times in the inning, with the biggest blow a grand slam from Courtney Nealon.

All of a sudden, the 6-0 lead had evaporated, and Harvard was looking at a tie game.

“I thought we [handled] it very well,” Shaw said. “We just didn’t put much pressure on ourselves, and just let our offense do what it was doing before.”

Once again, it was Macadam who put her team on her back, plating Shiotani with yet another RBI double before coming around on Shaw’s double to left.

Sophomore Jane Alexander added an insurance run in the seventh, singling through the left side to open the inning and then scoring on a sacrifice, a walk, and a passed ball.

Brown settled down to close out her seventh win of the season.

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.