Crimson Competes in Va. Tournament

While most Harvard students will spend their spring breaks relaxing on sandy beaches, the women of the softball team will be spending the majority of their time sweating it out on a different type of dirt.

The Crimson (6-3) will play nine games in as many days, starting today with the Highlander Classic in Radford, Va., and concluding next weekend with doubleheaders at Columbia and Penn.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a winning record in preseason, and our preseason has been tough,” co-captain Bailey Vertovez said. “We’re in a really good place right now, and we’re ready to start league play after this weekend. We’re excited to play Ivy teams rather than teams from these big conferences.”

But before Harvard can take to the field against the Lions and the Bulldogs, the team will have to make use of this weekend’s matchups to fine tune its play.

“We’re making a few adjustments at the plate,” Vertovez said. “We’re trying to execute different situations and hitters have been seeing a lot of live work. Getting close to the season, we’re just tweaking things and looking for perfection.”

This stretch of matchups through spring break will come as a welcome relief to the Crimson, who has not competed for nearly two weeks.

“We’re excited to play some more games,” Vertovez said. “We’ve been inside for two weeks since our last game, and we want to get as many games in before getting into Ivy play, and we’re excited to play in warm weather.”

Warm climates have been kind to Harvard—most recently, the team won the Miken Classic in Boca Raton, Fla.

Freshman pitcher Rachel Brown was named tournament MVP and garnered Ivy Pitcher of the Week honors for her efforts in the team’s tournament victories. The first-year struck out eight batters and ceded just one earned run in Harvard’s 3-2 win over Florida Atlantic to move to 5-0 with a 0.88 ERA on the season.

“Rachel Brown has been amazing for us,” Vertovez said.

“She’s been unstoppable on the mound and we love that she’s on our team. She has great energy and as a team we feed off of that. It’s great to see a freshman come in and dominate these hitters,” she added.

Brown and the rest of the pitching staff will have the opportunity to see many different hitting styles when it competes in the Highlander Classic this weekend.

A crucial part of Harvard’s pitching staff, along with Brown, freshmen Marika Zumbro and Julia Moore, and junior Margaux Black, will be none other than Vertovez, who threw a two-hitter in Harvard’s 1-0 loss to Central Michigan.

“Our pitching staff goes so deep,” Vertovez said. “Having a deep staff—that is huge and it’s going to make us really great contenders.”

When they take on Eastern Michigan today, the Crimson pitchers will be tested by Eagles infielder Stacie Skodinski, who currently leads her team in both batting average, at .449, and slugging percentage. at .816. The sophomore has also hit four home runs on the season and leads Eastern Michigan in RBI with 15.

Harvard will also look to continue to develop its offense throughout tournament play. It takes on Radford—a team that has won six of its last seven games and is 12-4 on the season—in its third matchup of the tournament.

Against the Highlanders, the Crimson will face sophomore pitcher Kellie Snooks, who has an 8-0 record and a 1.83 ERA.

But Harvard should have plenty of offensive firepower to throw Snooks’ way. Junior Jess Pledger leads the Crimson batters with a .346 batting average and 11 RBI. She also has three game-winning hits.

“Jess Pledger has been between [designated hitter] and catcher,” Vertovez said. “She comes up with these clutch hits like it’s her job. She’ll come in when we need her to to get the clutch hit.”

Co-captain Hayley Bock also has a .346 batting average and leads the team in slugging percentage at .538.

“I’m a leader on the field when I’m catching, and as a member of the three-four-five hitters,” Bock said. “It’s part of my job to be a consistent hitter and drive in a lot of [runs]. I’m a power hitter, so doubles, triples, and home runs should be expected.”

A strong showing at the Highlander Classic could be indicative of how the Crimson’s regular season is going to go, since it is the final tournament leading up to the beginning of the Ivy season.

“We’re pretty confident we can win this tournament,” Vertovez said. “We’re going to come in with this mindset so we’re going to come out and do what we’ve been doing—that means relying on our pitching and waiting for our bats to come through one through nine.”

“I’m looking to open our Ivy League as strong as we have started our preseason,” Bock added. “We want to open up Ivies with a sweep.”

—Staff writer Lucy D. Chen can be reached at lucychen@fas.harvard.edu.