Softball Struggles for Hits Against BU

“Flat” was the first word Harvard softball coach Jenny Allard used to describe her team’s performance Tuesday afternoon.

The hosting Crimson (17-17, 8-4 Ivy) yielded six unanswered runs to fall to Boston University (9-23, 1-7 Patriot League), 6-2, in a nonconference matchup at Soldier Softball Field.

“We didn’t play well,” Allard said. “We were very flat. Our bats were not firing, we didn’t string any hits together, the runs we scored they gave us, and in the first inning when we had bases loaded we didn’t capitalize.”

In the first inning, Harvard appeared to be off to a safe start, as starting pitcher Taylor Cabe was able to keep the Terriers scoreless through the top half of the first. The Crimson offense then took over and put two runs on the board without having to record a hit. BU started junior right handed pitcher Melanie Russell, who gave up four walks to the first five batters she faced. Two of her walked batters came around to score, giving Harvard an early lead.

After the Terriers pulled Russell in favor of sophomore right hander Makinna Akers in the middle of the first inning, the Crimson bats went silent. Akers held Harvard scoreless for the remainder of the game, halting what seemed like a Crimson rally early in the game. Akers took the win on the day, allowing three hits and no runs in her 6.2 innings of work.

“The first pitcher [BU] threw wasn’t finding the zone very much, and then they changed pitchers on us, and I think that might’ve thrown our energy for a loop a little bit,” senior shortstop Emily Gusse said. “We thought we kind of had them in the bag. There wasn’t enough effort at the plate. You have to see the pitchers more and talk more to each other about what you’re seeing.”

The Terriers found their stride later in the game, as the team tallied four runs off of four hits and a Harvard error. The visitors’ surge forced Allard to go to the bullpen for junior Morgan Groom, as Cabe left the game charged with the loss after giving up seven hits and striking out four batters in her 3.1 innings.

Groom staved off BU briefly, getting out of the fourth inning without giving up any more runs, but the Terriers tacked on two more runs over the next two innings.

Harvard appeared to have one last push in the bats in the bottom of the seventh when sophomore catcher Gianna Panariello led off with a double into right center field and advanced to third on a fielder’s choice, but she was ultimately left stranded.

The Terriers picked up their third straight win over Harvard to extend a streak dating back to April 2013. The Crimson will visit Boston College on Thursday.

Allard had planned to split pitching over the game, yet felt that the change may have come too late. So far this season, Harvard has evenly divided time among the four pitchers on its roster.

“We just want to get all the pitchers time this week,” Allard said. “Taylor’s been throwing pretty well so we gave her the start. We probably left her in one inning too long, and they started to get on her a bit and string some things together…. We want both of them to be more consistent. That’s the goal.”

On the offensive side of the ball, Harvard struggled the entire game to string hits together. In a break from its recent offensive success, the team only tallied three hits over the course of the seven innings. The Crimson had scored 26 runs in the previous four games heading into Tuesday’s matchup.

“Your ideal is to hit, so you have to swing at good pitches when they come,” Gusse said. “I think something unique about today is we had an abnormal amount of walks, so we did use the ump’s zone, but we weren’t getting the hits to keep it moving.”