Softball Claims First Place with Sweep

The finish line is in sight, and the Harvard softball team is barreling towards it.

With six games to go in the Ivy season, the Crimson (20-20, 11-3 Ivy) took over sole possession of first place in the North Division on Saturday, sweeping Yale (9-24, 4-10) at Dewitt Family Field.

Harvard easily won the first game, 6-0, behind a 16-strikeout gem from sophomore pitcher Rachel Brown. And though the Bulldogs held a 3-0 lead through six innings in the nightcap, the Crimson refused to let its rival play the spoiler, breaking out for 10 runs in the top of the seventh in a 10-3 win.

“I think that’s exactly the team we want to be headed into the Dartmouth weekend and potentially the Ivy League Championship,” Brown said. “That was our best softball, and it was really great to see that.”

HARVARD 10, YALE 3

For six innings, Yale pitcher Kayla Kuretich had the Crimson’s number.

The senior scattered four hits and two walks through the game’s first six frames, and with a run in the third and two more in the fourth, the Bulldogs had her staked to a 3-0 lead heading into the final inning.

But that’s when Harvard’s bats—which had been launching balls right at Yale’s fielders all game—finally got lucky.

“We had confidence in ourselves,” sophomore Whitney Shaw said. “We had been hitting shots...but we hadn’t been able to catch a break. The seventh inning, we caught a break finally.”

With one out in the inning, sophomore pinch hitter Mari Zumbro reached base on an error to spark the Crimson rally. Consecutive singles from sophomore Jane Alexander and junior Ellen Macadam loaded the bases, and senior Stephanie Krysiak’s hit to second base was misplayed, letting pinch runner Emily Henderson score.

Singles from co-captain Melissa Schellberg, who is also a Crimson sports editor, and Shaw made the score 4-3, and rookie Jess Ferri ripped a 2-RBI double to right center to clear the bases.

“The last inning against Yale, I just had the feeling that it was never going to stop,” Brown said.

Ferri came home on a fielder’s choice off the bat of senior Jen Francis, and a pair of walks to Henderson and Alexander loaded the bases once more.

Macadam capped the inning with a bases-clearing double, extending Harvard’s lead to 10-3 before Krysiak struck out to finally end the inning.

Brown came on in the seventh to close out the game, striking out the side after allowing a leadoff single.

HARVARD 6, YALE 0

In the series opener, Brown sparkled again, taking a no-hit bid into the seventh but settling for a one-hit shutout that included 16 strikeouts.

“I felt really good,” she said. “It was definitely nice to have a few days off during this week...I think that really helped. I felt a lot stronger on the mound and kind of more mentally alert.”

But Brown’s supporting cast gave her an early lead with a four-run third inning.

Macadam drew a one-out walk and quickly stole second base. After moving to third on Krysiak’s single, the pair orchestrated a double steal, with Macadam swiping home to score the game’s first run.

Shaw reached on an error that let Krysiak score, and Ferri followed up with a bomb over the center-field fence to bring the score to 4-0.

After struggling to string hits together in last weekend’s series with Brown, the Crimson bats did not have the same problems on Saturday.

“I thought we came out great,” Shaw said. “We hit the ball very hard, and we came out and really showed our intensity in our bats.”

Shaw was the catalyst for the game’s final two runs, reaching base on a single in the fifth. Freshman pinch runner Ashley Heritage then came around to score on senior Jess Pledger’s sacrifice fly.

The sophomore slugger gave Harvard some insurance with one out in the seventh, drilling a solo homer to center.

And after letting the first two runners reach in the seventh, Brown pitched her way out of the jam to preserve the shutout.

The sweep also put the Crimson alone in first place heading into today’s doubleheader against Yale. Dartmouth split with Brown on Saturday to fall one game back.

“It feels great because it comes on a great day,” said Brown of taking sole possession of first, “but we also aren’t going to take it too lightly...We can’t hope for anybody else to [clinch the division] for us—we have to win out and take the games in our own hands.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.