Groom Blanks Brown in One-Hit Victory on the Road

Travelling south to cloudy Providence, the Harvard softball team stayed hot, sweeping a doubleheader against Brown to extend its winning streak to a conference-high 10 games.

The Crimson (21-18, 11-5 Ivy) made easy work of the Bears (8-25, 2-14) in 4-0 and 3-1 victories that kept Harvard tied for first in the North Division before Sunday’s games.

Though Harvard only scored a combined seven runs, it benefited from two complete games from its freshmen pitchers. Morgan Groom shutout the Bears in the first game, and carried a no-hitter through six-and-two-thirds before giving up a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh.

Jamie Halula held Brown to one earned run on three hits, behind a solid defense that did not commit a single error on the day.

“Our infield defense was solid during the preseason,” Harvard coach Jenny Allard said. “We had some lapses in there, but they’re bringing it back now. Our outfield has come a long way and has been much more consistent from the second half on.”

HARVARD 3, BROWN 1

Led by a productive top of the batting order, the Crimson scored early and was able to withstand a comeback attempt from the Bears, who tied up the game in the third.

For the second time in as many games, junior third basemen Kasey Lange led off the scoring in the first, plating senior designated player Stephanie Regan with a sacrifice fly to right field.

Halula gave up her only run of the day in the third, when freshman third baseman Trista Chavez hit a two-out solo homerun in the bottom of the third. The freshman walked the next batter but got out of the inning on a hard-hit ground ball to sophomore second baseman Katherine Lantz.

Although Harvard continued to get runners on base—leaving seven on in the game—the Bears were able to quiet the Crimson’s offense until the top of the seventh.

With one out, Regan doubled to left center. Junior captain and right fielder Shelbi Olson brought her home with a double of her own, and she later advanced two bases to score on two wild pitches, putting Harvard on top, 3-1.

“Given the events of this week and not being able to get any hitting in yesterday, we were mentally a little fatigued,” Allard said. “We knew Brown was a scrappy team, but we had confidence that we could score more runs than them. We just needed to stay with the process a little bit more.”

HARVARD 4, BROWN 0

Behind Lange—who leads the team in every major statistical category—the Crimson got on the board early and scored all four of its runs in the first four innings.

Regan got to the Bears right off the bat, finding left field with a lead-off double in the first. After Olson flew out, Regan took third on a wild pitch, and Lange picked up her first of three RBI with a double to the same spot as Regan’s.

In the bottom of the first, Groom hit Chavez and allowed her first of six base runners, but she pitched around the mistake and ended the inning on a soft grounder to Lantz.

Lantz walked to lead off the second, but Harvard could not get on the board again until the third. With no outs and Olson on first, Lange stepped to the plate and blasted one out of the park to put the Crimson up 3-0.

“I was just seeing the ball really well,” Lange said. “We were happy to score a couple runs as a team.”

Harvard’s final run came in the fourth, when Regan laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring home freshman centerfielder Zoe Galindo.

The Bears and the Crimson traded scoreless innings until the bottom of the seventh. Groom got the first two outs—including one of her seven strikeouts on the day—but got into trouble when she gave up a walk and hit the next batter. With two on and two out, freshman pinch hitter Jamie Pospishil singled on a liner to left, but sophomore catcher Katherine Appelbe tagged out the lead runner at home—on a rocket from freshman left fielder Haley Davis—to end the game.

“[Groom’s] stuff was breaking well,” Allard said. “The mistakes she made were because her pitches were moving too much, not that she was leaving over the plate to be hit.”

—Staff writer Hope Schwarz can be reached at hschwartz@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSchwartz16.