Softball Outpitches BU

BOSTON—It’s no secret that freshman leadoff hitter Lauren Stefanchik of the Harvard softball team is among the most dangerous players in the country on the basepaths. Yet despite any forewarning, the Boston University pitchers were at a loss to prevent her from crossing the plate yesterday.

The Crimson’s slap-hitting phenom reached base in each of her three plate appearances and scored twice on RBI hits from tri-captains Tiffany Whitton and Sarah Koppel. That was all the offense Harvard (14-4, 0-0 Ivy) would need as sophomore Kara Brotemarkle and senior Suzanne Guy combined to limit BU (9-17, 4-0 American East) to just three hits in a 2-1 Crimson road victory.

The victory was Harvard’s fourth straight entering Ivy League play against Brown and Yale this weekend. It also snapped a 19-game BU home win streak.

Stefanchik’s leadoff execution and the Crimson’s strong pitching—to the tune of a 2.31 staff ERA—have been hallmarks of Harvard wins all season.

“Every game we’ve played this year, we’ve had an opportunity to win,” said Harvard Coach Jenny Allard. “Pitching and defense have kept us in every game. Our defense is making few, if any, mistakes. Our offense just needs to step up and win it.”

Stefanchik, now a .440 hitter, put Harvard in position to score the first run by drawing a walk and stealing second to start the game. Koppel doubled to right center two batters later to give the Crimson the comfortable 1-0 lead in a place where visitors hadn’t won in over a year.

“We’ve been away a lot so I like getting up first and trying to get that first run in so that the other team is down from the beginning,” Stefanchik said.

A one-run lead was just enough for Brotemarkle to avoid falling behind. In four innings she gave up three hits and struck out five.

Her one nemesis was Terrier leadoff hitter Julie Henneke. Henneke doubled in her first at bat and skied her first home run of the season in the fourth to tie the game, 1-1. In between the two at bats, Brotemarkle had retired all nine she faced.

“If I’m behind I don’t really like to walk people, so I kind of threw to her when I shouldn’t have,” Brotemarkle said. “I probably should’ve been a little more outside.”

Being a whole new ball game in the top of the fifth, Stefanchik did just what she did to start the real ball game—getting on base. This time she placed the ball just over the Terrier third-baseman’s head and was on first an instant later. Sophomore Kim Koral fulfilled her role by bunting Stefanchik along to second, and Whitton came through with the clutch hit for her 22nd RBI of the season.

“Lauren’s done a great job getting on base for us,” Whitton said. “It makes following her in the lineup a lot easier knowing she has a knack to be in scoring position.”

With the lead, Allard mixed things up, switching from the hard-throwing Brotemarkle to Guy in relief, and it was lights out from there. In her typical style, Guy forced ground ball after ground ball, and three hitless, walkless innings later, the game was over.

If there was any negative from yesterday’s game, it was that Harvard couldn’t capitalize on more of its eight hits. The Crimson had plenty of chances to add insurance against Henneke, who was the Terriers’ third pitcher of the afternoon.

Sophomore infielder Breanne Cooley and freshman catcher Laura Miller led off the sixth with back-to-back hits and Stefanchik led off the seventh with a perfectly placed infield hit, but Henneke succeeded where the other Terrier pitchers had failed and prevented the runners from scoring.

Yet the success of Guy and the Harvard defense behind her made those Crimson offensive shortcomings irrelevant.

Guy earned her third save of the year and lowered her ERA to a team-best 1.15, while Brotemarkle improved to 6-3 with a 2.28 ERA.

In addition to its pitching strength, another encouraging Crimson trend was its ability to outdo its opponents on the basepaths. The poised freshman catcher Miller caught a Terrier stealing to give Crimson opponents just eight steals on 12 attempts this season. Stefanchik gave Harvard its 33rd steal in 37 attempts, a tribute to Allard’s preseason change of philosophy and some healthy drills in the offseason.

Harvard will now gets its first chance to translate its early season success into a third straight Ivy title when it enters its first weekend of league play, with games set at Brown tomorrow and at Yale on Sunday. Neither team has beaten Harvard since 1997.

For Stefanchik and the other freshmen, it will be their first chance for the long-awaited Ivy season.

“We’re hitting really well now, the defense is good, and the pitching is awesome,” Stefanchik said. “So I think we’re feeling good about [Ivy play].”