Softball Follows Freshmen Against Penn, Princeton

They may be young, but boy can they play. A few feisty freshmen have stepped up for the Harvard softball team and will look to make an impact this weekend as the Crimson embarks on its Ivy League schedule.

Harvard (10-12-1) will play a pair of doubleheaders this weekend, squaring off against Penn (8-16, 0-2 Ivy) on Friday and Princeton (15-10, 2-0 ) on Saturday.

Much of the success for the Crimson this year has been a result of contributions from the first-years.

“They’ve come through big in a lot of games this year,” co-captain Kara Brotemarkle said.

Leading the charge for the freshmen has been third baseman Virginia Fritsch, last week’s Ivy Rookie of the Week. In seven games the Los Gatos, Calif. native went 12-21 with a home run and 10 runs batted in. On the season Fristsch has a smoking .392 batting average, with a home run and 14 RBI. But she has been spectacular not just at the plate—Fritsch also has a perfect fielding percentage, having not made an error in 37 chances at the hot corner.

The bumper crop also includes second baseman/shortstop Julia Kidder, who is still batting at astronomical levels (.480 BA, .581 on-base percentage) and pitcher Becky Voaklander (3-0, 3.68 earned run average), who provided solid relief on Tuesday against UMass.

Upperclassmen have still carried the lion’s share. Junior Cecily Gordon has continued to swing with extreme prejudice, batting .342 with four home runs and 15 RBI. In the pitching circle, Brotemarkle (4-7, 1.89 ERA) and junior Lauren Bettinelli (5-4, 2.08 ERA) have been very solid.

First up for Harvard will be Penn, a perennial Ancient Eight bottom dweller. The Quakers have struggled with their pre-Ivy schedule, going 8-14.

Penn’s top offensive threat is senior outfielder/first baseman Erin O’Brien, who is hitting .295 with four home runs and 13 RBI.

The Quakers have suffered under the stifling scourges of offensive impotence and bad pitching. They carry a team BA of .236 and an ERA of over four-and-a-half.

Nonetheless, Penn has shown it can be very competitive and could factor heavily in the Ivy race. Last weekend, two-time defending Ivy champ Princeton visited Philadelphia for a doubleheader and was fortunate to emerge with two wins.

In the first game, the Quakers’ freshman Lindsey Permar and the Tigers’ sophomore Erin Snyder locked horns in an epic pitchers’ duel. After seven scoreless innings that saw 18 strikeouts and only two hits between both teams, the game headed into an extra frame.

Permar surrendered two hits in the top of the eighth that led to the game-winning run. For her part, Snyder notched 10 strikeouts in a perfect game, the first of her career, and was named the Ivy Pitcher of the Week.

Last year Snyder was the Ivy Rookie of the Year and was a First Team All-Ivy selection.

In the next game, Princeton’s Melissa Finley tossed a four-hit shutout and also went 2-3 at the plate with an RBI in the 6-0 victory. Last year’s Ivy Player of the Year was awarded Player of the Week honors for her heroics last week, in which she batted 6-11, knocking home five runs and went 2-0 on the mound, allowing one run a game.

Besides Finley, who is swinging at a .311 clip with four round-trippers and 18 RBI, and Snyder, who is hitting .305 with one dinger and nine RBI, the Tigers are led at the plate by senior left fielder Wendy Bingham who carries a .296 batting average out of the two-spot.

In addition to the dominating duo of Finley and Snyder, who also sport ERAs of 1.84 and 2.07, respectively, Calli Varner (3-0, 2.57 ERA) can toss the ball effectively, as evidenced by the no-hitter she threw last Tuesday against Fairfield.

Princeton comes to Cambridge red-hot and battle tested, having won seven games in a row and having played a demanding schedule, to say the least. Of the Tigers’ first 14 opponents, only four have not been ranked in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 at some point this year, and the Tigers have even beaten three top 25 teams.

Last season, Harvard swept the Tigers in New Jersey—handing Princeton two of its three Ivy losses—when the Tigers needed just one victory to claim its second straight conference title.

On the other hand, the Crimson dropped both games last year to Penn—granting the Quakers two of their three Ivy victories.

“It’s definitely possible to beat any team in the league, but you can also get beat by any team in the league,” Brotemarkle said. “On any given day, if you don’t play well, you can lose.”

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.