SEASON RECAP: Softball

A year full of streaks­­—both winning and losing—saw the Harvard softball team finish with an 18-20 record and a 9-5 mark in Ivy play, good enough for third place. The hope and promise of spring gave way to the doubts and mixed results of a long season, as the Crimson’s young pitching staff alternately impressed and disappointed, while an improbable spate of injuries dented the roster, leaving the resilient squad to endure and forage for victories.

“We’re not going to win all the time,” Harvard coach Jenny Allard said. “We’re not going to be at full strength all the time, but we’re going to enjoy being out here and that’s really what came through.”

The season’s opening weekend in Southern California proved to be a microcosm of the puzzle that was the Crimson’s season. After winning its first two encounters, Harvard was mercy-ruled in its next two against weak competition.

A weak southern stretch of seven straight losses followed over vacation before freshman Amanda Watkins helped start a new streak and end the road trip on a positive note with a complete-game win over Drexel.

Harvard brought its record back to .500 with a busy first week of April. The team swept twinbills from Rhode Island and Quinnipiac, rounding into the top form conspicuously absent during its rust-plagued start in March.

“We had a rough start at the beginning of the season,” sophomore Julia Kidder said. “It was nice to see our team coming together.”

The Ivy slate began encouragingly that weekend as Harvard swept Brown and split a doubleheader with Yale. In the late game with the Bulldogs, the Crimson could not overcome a first-inning grand slam in a 4-2 loss.

“It was a great start to conference,” Allard said. “No one is going to go undefeated and we played tough.”

Freshman Shelly Madick won all four of her appearances that week, including a complete-game two-hitter over the Bears and a five-hit shutout versus Yale.

The Crimson’s next matchup was its most memorable of the season. Madick dueled with Princeton ace Erin Snyder for nine scoreless innings until senior Beth Sabin hit a solo home run in the top of the tenth to win it 1-0.

After dropping the late game, the squad swept a pair of games from Penn to bring its Ivy record to 6-2 and stay in the title hunt.

A critical home set versus defending Ivy champs Cornell loomed to protect Harvard’s tie in the loss column with first-place Princeton. But in the wind and rain at Soldiers Field, the Crimson lost both games and its chance at the division title.

Despite the disappointment, worsened the following day by two losses at UMass, Harvard finished the Ivy campaign on a high note.

An offensive explosion (18 runs and 26 hits) produced a sweep over Columbia and the team rebounded from a loss in the opener at Dartmouth when injured Michele McAteer twirled a three-hitter in the season finale.

Amid the incessant procession to the disabled list and the glut of deflating defeats, however, there were several bright spots for Harvard.

Senior Lauren Stefanchik earned her fourth straight All-Ivy nomination, leading the team in batting average, runs, and stolen bases from the leadoff spot. Sabin returned from a year-long absence to mash three home runs, sophomore Susie Winkeller emerged to hit .338, and freshman Danielle Kerper quickly asserted herself as the team’s best longball threat, amassing five dingers and 26 RBI.

The strong pitching of Madick was the biggest surprise inside the circle. She finished the year as the Crimson’s statistical ace, leading the team in wins, innings, and strikeouts.

Although the solid senior class of Stefanchik, Sabin, co-captain Lauren Bettinelli, first baseman Cecily Gordon, and catcher Annie Dell’Aria represents the only group during Allard’s tenure to depart without an Ivy title, the seeds were sown in 2005 for a ripe future with the young guns left behind.

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