Softball Loses Two in Boston

For the Harvard softball team on Tuesday, a bitter Beantown battle turned into a blurry blizzard blowout.

As the needle dropped below 40 degrees and snow flurries swept through Boston College’s Shea Field, the Crimson (10-12) dropped a pair of decisions to its crosstown rivals that were just as sloppy as the weather outside.

The Eagles (15-15) exploited lackluster Harvard pitching to the tune of five home runs over the two games and held the Crimson to a mere three combined runs. The doubleheader proved a major non-conference letdown for the team after a successful opening Ivy League weekend, as it fell by scores of 5-1 and 12-2.

“We need to remember how bad this feels,” Harvard coach Jenny Allard said. “I’m disappointed, we didn’t play well. It’s something I want to learn from.”

BC 12, HARVARD 2

The Boston College bats turned their home diamond into a launching pad in game two, sending four longballs over the fence in a five-inning rout.

The Crimson was done in by a disastrous third inning, in which two pitchers could not stop an onslaught that saw 15 Eagles step to the plate.

Starter Becky Voaklander began the frame by allowing a two-run blast to BC centerfielder Kimmy Hopkin—Hopkin’s second such hit of the game—after an Erin Halpenny error.

The tater put Harvard in a 5-1 hole but the marathon frame was just beginning. Two hits, two fielder’s choices, and a hit batter later, Voaklander was pulled and freshman Amanda Watkins inherited a 6-1 deficit and a dangerous bases-loaded situation. After plunking the first batter she faced, Watkins surrendered a grand slam to leadoff hitter Jenna Macchi, Watkins’ second slam allowed in as many games.

“Our pitchers didn’t keep the ball in the ballpark,” Allard said. “We can’t do that against a team like this.”

Watkins would eventually escape the embarrassing inning, but not before issuing four free passes and leaving the Crimson behind by a count of 12-1.

Harvard scrounged up a tally in the top of the fifth on a hit and a two-base throwing error, but could not avoid the mercy rule in the soggy, frigid nightcap.

“We can’t let it bother us,” Allard said.

The game did not start as bleakly for the Crimson as it ended. Senior first baseman Cecily Gordon launched her first home run of the season with two outs in the first to give the squad a brief one-run lead.

The advantage evaporated in the first when the Eagles connected for back-to-back homers and built a 3-1 edge.

Although Boston College managed only seven hits for the game—the same figure as Harvard—they made the most of their opportunities with the home runs. The Crimson permitted additional baserunners through the wildness of its pitchers and the ineffectiveness of its defense, and the Eagles made it pay.

Harvard, on the flip side, was unable to plate the runners it put in scoring position, most glaringly during a no-out, bases-loaded chance in the second. A leadoff single by catcher Annie Dell’Aria, a double down the line from sophomore Susie Winkeller, and an error on a Lauren Brown ground ball filled the sacks, but the next three hitters failed to capitalize.

“We had a lot of hits,” freshman Danielle Kerper said. “But today obviously wasn’t our best effort.”

BC 5, HARVARD 1

In the opening game of the afternoon twinbill, the Crimson hung with Boston College for four innings, but could not generate enough offense against Eagles hurler Michelle Daly to stick around.

Junior Michele McAteer, still coping with injuries to her pitching arm and elbow, got the starting nod for Harvard and went three strong innings, allowing three hits and one run before departing with the contest tied at 1.

Harvard had knotted the game in the top of the third on co-captain Kerry Flaherty’s first collegiate home run, a no-doubt solo drive to left field that came as the slumping junior’s fifth hit of the season.

But after two more singles in the third inning, the Crimson managed only one hit the rest of the way as Daly bore down.

“Offensively we were trying to make things happen,” Allard said. “But we couldn’t string hits together. Somebody’s got to step up and get a big hit, drive the ball to the outfield.”

Freshman Shelly Madick, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week and co-Pitcher of the Week, came on in relief of McAteer and could not keep pace with Daly. Sabotaged in part by her defense, Madick allowed four runs (two earned) in three innings of work and took the loss, falling to 5-4 on the season.

Perhaps the most important moment of the game, however, came on a routine grounder in the bottom of the third, when sophomore Julia Kidder was injured covering a play at first base. Kidder, a consistent producer on offense and a versatile defender, hopped away from the bag holding her left knee and eventually left the field for X-rays.

“We don’t know her status right now,” Allard said. “She’s a player we rely on to spark usit hurt when she went down.”

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.