Crimson Splits BU Doubleheader

It was both a closing and an opening for Harvard softball at Soldiers Field yesterday. The doubleheader contest with Boston University marked the last games before Ivy League play begins this weekend, while also representing the first home contests of the month-old season.

A pair of close games yielded a split, with the Terriers (16-16) taking Game 1 and the Crimson (11-12) winning Game 2.

With the non-conference schedule winding down, the Crimson is prepared for the upcoming Ivy League slate.

“Our preseason has been solid,” said senior third baseman Erin Halpenny. “It hasn’t been spectacular, but we’ve done a lot of the things that we needed to do.”

This weekend, the Crimson begins league play with a pair of road doubleheaders. Harvard opens the conference season at red-hot Columbia on Saturday, followed by games at Cornell on Sunday.

Columbia swept St. Francis in a doubleheader yesterday, extending its win streak to five games—the second-longest current streak in the Ivy League. Columbia senior pitcher Maiya Chard-Yaron threw the school’s first seven-inning no-hitter on Apr. 2 in a defeat of Fairfield, and the Lions have run their record to 17-14-1.

Cornell sits at 14-15 after dropping a pair of one-run games to St. Bonaventure on Apr. 5. The losses broke Cornell’s three-game winning streak, and the Big Red will look to return to its winning ways against Dartmouth on Saturday before meeting the Crimson.

There is no question that Harvard will be ready for conference play, and hopes are high for a strong start.

“I think we’re going to do well in Ivies this year,” Halpenny said. “That’s when the intensity really picks up. Everybody knows that the season’s beginning on Saturday.”

HARVARD 3, BOSTON UNIVERSITY 2

Halpenny drove a long sacrifice fly to right field, scoring junior Julia Kidder in the fifth inning and providing the winning margin in Game 2.

The rally got started with one out, when junior second baseman and leadoff hitter Lauren Brown reached first on a walk. In the next at-bat, Kidder ripped an RBI triple into centerfield, scoring Brown.

The pair of runs put the Crimson ahead 3-2, and they were all the support freshman starter Bailey Vertovez would need. Vertovez went the distance in picking up her team-leading fourth win, striking out ten and walking three. But the best may still be to come from the budding ace.

“I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments,” Vertovez said. “But I’m still working on it. I feel like I’ll always be working on it.”

Harvard got on the board first, striking in the second inning. Junior left fielder Susie Winkeller was hit by Terriers’ pitcher Shayne Lotito. Senior right fielder Pilar Adams laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Winkeller to second, and two batters later, sophomore first baseman Danielle Kerper drove an RBI double to left field.

Both of Boston University’s runs were unearned and came in the top of the third, aided by a pair of Crimson errors.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY 3, HARVARD 1

The Crimson left seven runners on base—five of them in scoring position—in losing to the Terriers in Game 1.

“Sometimes we get the clutch hits and sometimes we don’t,” Halpenny said. “We’re getting the runners on, though, which is the first step.”

Boston University scored a tally in the second and added two more in the fifth to put Harvard away. Terriers right fielder Josey Mendez hit a home run with one out in the second off Crimson sophomore starter Shelley Madick.

Madick departed after four innings of otherwise spotless work, having surrendered just two hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

Sophomore Amanda Watkins replaced Madick, pitching the final three innings. She took the loss, giving up two runs while striking out one and walking one.

Brown had Harvard’s lone RBI, scorching a double to left field to score freshman center fielder Jade Reichling in the bottom of the fifth.

Adams had a strong game at the plate, doubling to center in the fourth inning and doubling to left in the sixth.

—Staff writer Brad Hinshelwood can be reached at bhinshel@fas.harvard.edu.