Softball Team Has Improved Speed, Depth

An initial glance at the roster of the Harvard softball team can be deceptive.

Ordinarily, a team with 15 freshmen and sophomores but just five juniors and seniors would bring to mind the phrase “a rebuilding year,” but as the early results would indicate, this year’s Harvard softball team is far from ordinary.

Harvard’s 12-4 record at the end of spring break was the best mark the team has had since Coach Jenny Allard arrived in 1995, and it’s in no way due to a prior lack of success.

The Crimson has finished first or second in the Ivies in each year of Allard’s tenure, with championship rings in three of the last four seasons.

With this year’s team coming together nicely, the Crimson is poised to make another run at an Ivy title and an NCAA berth. The team accomplished half of their goal last year when a great second-half run secured them a share of the league crown, but fell short of a tourney bid when co-champion Cornell swept the Crimson in a best-of-three playoff.

“It’s funny when we’re wearing our Ivy League rings, you see the freshmen’s faces light up,” sophomore third baseman Breanne Cooley said. “They want it. So it’s nice to know they’ll definitely get a chance to get it. But it’s going take a lot of work.”

With such a young squad, Allard chose to play a significantly easier nonconference schedule, avoiding the West Coast trip against nationally-ranked top 25 teams that it played last season.

The result was a nonconference record even stronger than the easier schedule could explain.

“This year I felt that with 15 freshmen and sophomores, I really wanted to get their confidence up, and build them up as a team,” Allard said. “This team is as good as any team I’ve had—there’s no question about that. But it’s younger, so I was more concerned this year with us mentally.”

The main reason why the 2002 campaign doesn’t qualify as a rebuilding year is because there simply wasn’t much to rebuild. The Crimson lost just one starting position player and one starting pitcher from last year’s roster. The return of senior pitcher Suzanne Guy and the infusion of seven talented freshmen make this team as gifted and spirited as any before.

“It’s awesome because we have so much fresh energy,” said Cooley, who led all Ivy freshmen with a .355 average last season. “People say it’s hard when you have a young team, but it’s also great because they just come to play and have so much fun.”

A year ago, Harvard could start as many as six freshmen and often an all-freshman infield. That won’t happen this year—but not due to any lack of skill on the freshmen’s part.

This year’s recruiting class boasts an impressive list of accolades with two NFCA All-Americans and state players of the year, a Regional All-American and a host of players from the deep talent pools of Michigan, Washington and California.

When a team with so few openings to fill already receives such an influx of talent, the result is a team that’s deeper than ever before.

“Every position can be covered by two or three people,” Cooley said. “Anytime we need someone off the bench, everyone’s ready. We’re a really young team, and we may be a little less experienced, but there’s a little more enthusiasm.”

Meanwhile, the sophomores—because they earned so much playing time as freshmen—are experienced beyond their years, and are capable role models for the incoming class.

“It’s a lot easier when you have someone else on the field who’s confident in what they’re telling someone else,” said Sara Williamson, the First Team All-Ivy second baseman last season. “Last year we were still trying to figure out our roles. Now that we have a year behind us, we’re trying to be better leaders.”

Those freshmen who have no upperclassmen to mentor them at their positions have had no problem fending for themselves. As a consistent freshman starter, catcher Laura Miller has hit .350—third-best on the team—and served as the vocal leader in the infield that a catcher needs to be.

“Laura Miller’s stepped up—you’d never know what class she’s in,” Williamson said. “She catches like a boy. She’s back there and intense every pitch.”

The perseverance of the freshmen and the exceptional guidance from the sophomores only adds to the strong leadership from the juniors and seniors. It begins with the captaining triumvirate of senior Lisa Watanabe, two-time All-Ivy junior Tiffany Whitton and three-time All-Ivy senior Sarah Koppel.

Whitton and last year’s tri-captain Grace Bloodwell were the original captain-elects, but when Bloodwell left the team to pursue other interests, the coaching staff chose to name Watanabe and Koppel as additional captains.

“We felt both Sarah [Koppel] and Lisa Watanabe offered something the team needed,” Allard said. “And we saw the dynamic of three people working very well, and it has.”

While Harvard’s start this year has been impressive, so has the rest of the league’s. All but two Ivy teams were .500 or better entering the weekend. Other teams have impressive freshmen of their own. Cornell’s Lauren May already has a double-digit total of home runs for the season.

“Every year the Ivy League gets better—it’s going to get harder every year,” Williamson said. “But it’s good that the Ivies are becoming more competitive in our sport.”

So far this season, the Crimson has kept pace with the ever-improving league by making significant improvements in its team speed—especially at the leadoff spot—and its pitching depth.

Harvard’s leadoff hitters during the past two years’ stretch runs were Whitton in 2000 and Cooley in 2001. Having that pair—Harvard’s two leading hitters last season—further down in the lineup naturally makes the Crimson a better team, provided there’s someone else to fill that leadoff role.

That someone else may be one of the best leadoff hitters in the nation, Lauren Stefanchik. The Harvard freshman and three-time NFCA All-American set national high school records with 295 career stolen bases. She also owns the mark for most steals in a season (91) and most consecutive steals without getting caught (164). She batted over .700 her senior year.

Stefanchik is a slap hitter and bunter with an extraordinary sense of where to place the ball.

“We’ve had kids that fast, but not that consistent at getting on base,” Allard said. “What makes her very good is she’s very consistent putting the ball in play.”

Through 17 games at Harvard thus far, Stefanchik was hitting .417 with a team-leading 15 runs scored and 12 stolen bases in 13 attempts. That batting average understates her ability to get on base, because her hits are often scored as errors when she forces infielders to rush their throws. Already a two-time Ivy Rookie of the Week honoree, she’s on pace to break the Harvard single-season stolen base record of 25 with ease.

Stefanchik’s presence has a ripple effect that makes the whole team better. With intelligent hitters like Watanabe and Second Team All-Ivy sophomore Kim Koral batting behind her, the Crimson can set the table for Whitton. Whitton has flourished as the No. 3 hitter, tallying 21 RBI in her first 16 games, almost as many as she had all of last season (25).

Koppel, often behind Whitton in the lineup, has 10 RBI herself. That number is even more impressive considering that she has 13 walks this season—a vast improvement over last year when she had just five.

In addition to her direct contributions, Stefanchik’s aggression on the basepaths seems to be contagious. Through 17 games, the team had already doubled its stolen base total of 15 from a year ago with 33 steals in 37 attempts. That has given Harvard a huge advantage this year, as its opponents have a mere eight steals in comparison.

Several returning starters, namely Whitton, Williamson, Cooley, Watanabe, and sophomore shortstop Rachel Goldberg, have already stolen more bases than they did all last season. Freshman Ashley Augustine has also added two steals of her own as a pinch runner.

All that additional offense would be useless without the pitching to back it up, but this year’s rotation is as deep as they come.

It wasn’t that long ago (1999) when Chelsea Thoke ’01 was often called upon to pitch both ends of doubleheaders for Harvard. It makes it somewhat ironic that the year after she graduated, the Crimson is five arms strong.

Whitton and sophomore Kara Brotemarkle have come back strong from last season, while Guy—who pitched an Ivy-clinching shutout in 2000—returns after taking 2001 off. Throw in freshmen Lauren Tanner and Beth Sabin, and the staff is two pitchers deeper than last season.

“This is the best shape we’ve ever been in as far as pitching goes,” Allard said. “We have three experienced pitchers and two freshmen who are doing a good job. So if someone’s hurt or someone’s sick, we don’t miss out.”

Such is the case going into Ivy play—Whitton has been temporarily out of the rotation with rotator cuff injuries, but the team hasn’t missed a beat.

The five-pitcher arsenal also gives Harvard the option of using relievers to confound opponents. This can be effective because the five pitchers have a wide range of styles.

A variety of talents coming together with the whole being greater than the sum of its individual parts is, after all, what the concept of team is all about. Few teams reflect this idea better than Harvard softball.

One of the few negatives aspects of the upcoming season is that the team will grace the Harvard campus with its presence for just four of its 14 Ivy games this season.

Other than the scheduled season finale against Boston College on May 2, the Crimson’s only considerable homestand of the season runs from Apr. 11 to Apr. 18. So anyone hoping to see the newfound speed and strength of the softball team at Soliders Field will have little opportunity.