Softball Wins Three Straight On Road

The Harvard women's softball team cruised to three straight victories this weekend, crushing Ivy rivals Yale and Brown with a tremendous offensive outpouring to maintain their perfect record in league competition.

Coming off close losses to Boston College last Thursday, the Crimson (11-17, 4-0 Ivy) rebounded with a team effort, battering the Bulldogs in a convincing 10-3 victory.

Senior Deborah Abeles broke the game open in the first inning with a two-run shot to center field. The Crimson never looked back from there, leading the game from start to finish.

Junior ace Chelsea Thoke, returning from a slight injury to her throwing hand that she suffered last Thursday in a game against Boston College, recorded the win in the lopsided victory for the Crimson.

Though the second game of the scheduled double-header versus Yale was canceled due to rain, the team carried the momentum from its big win and traveled to Providence for two games against Brown on Sunday. They will return to New Haven this afternoon to make-up the game.

The road trip did not cool off the team's bats, however, as the Crimson struck first against the Bears in the opening game. Sophomore Sarah Koppel opened the second inning with a single. A double by senior Crystal Springer advanced Koppel to third, and a sacrifice fly by freshman Moica Montijo drove Koppel in and gave the Crimson a 1-0 lead.

Brown grabbed the lead with a two-run second inning, but Koppel continued her impressive day at the plate, blasting a two-run home run in the sixth to recapture the one-run lead over the Bears.

"The whole game was pretty intense," Koppel said. "It was close the whole time, and I'm glad that I came through when the pressure was on."

After Brown tied the game in their half of the sixth inning, the Crimson put the game away for good with some timely hits by sophomore Cherry Fu and freshman Tiffany Whitton in a two-run seventh. Brown failed to mount a comeback in the game's final inning, falling by a final score of 5-3 in the close game.

Thoke tossed a complete game and choked any offensive outbursts with 11 strikeouts en route to her second win of the weekend despite the nagging injury.

"It still hurts to throw my knuckleball, but I am glad that I was able to perform well," Thoke said.

The Crimson put on an impressive hitting display in the second game of the afternoon, pounding the Bears for nine runs in the first two innings and eliminating any chance of a late-inning comeback.

Both veterans and rookies contributed to the five-inning 12-2 victory, which was called on account of the mercy rule. Senior Jessie Amberg and freshmen Grace Bloodwell and Whitton led the team with two hits apiece.

"This was the first double-header that we actually finished," Whitton said. "We came out in the second game pretty strong."

The Crimson was also powered by a barrage of doubles, which drove in most of the runs in the productive opening innings. Senior Ghia Godfree, junior Mairead McKendry, Fu and Montijo each doubled during the first three innings to build up a virtually insurmountable 10-run lead.

Sophomore Suzanne Guy tamed the Bears with a strong performance on the mound, allowing only one earned run in five innings of work. The game ended with Brown threatening in the bottom of the fifth. With the bases loaded, Guy retired the final batter of the game and ended any possibility of a late rally by Brown.

The Crimson now looks forward to a six-game homestand to end the regular season. The team will take on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on Tuesday and return to conference play this Friday with a game against Pennsylvania.

"It will be great to play on our homefield, even though we've played well on the road all season," Thoke said. "The final homestand is definitely a positive for us."