Two Solid Performances from Groom Fuel Softball

The Harvard softball team spent its weekend in New Haven, picking up three wins in four games against Ivy rival Yale. The Crimson shut out the Bulldogs in its last matchup, 6-0, after a weekend of closely contested tilts. Harvard has now won nine of its last 10 games.

“We definitely have a large portion of our underclassmen stepping up,” junior Jillian Leslie said.

HARVARD 2, YALE 0

A scoreless seven innings for both the Crimson (20-14, 9-3 Ivy) and the Bulldogs (12-26, 5-7) forced the first game of the weekend into extra innings. Harvard broke through with two runs in the top of the eighth to win it.

Strong pitching by both teams highlighted the matchup. Captain Morgan Groom gave up only five hits over all eight innings she threw, picking up her sixth win of the year.

Yale had scoring opportunities in the bottom of the sixth and the seventh, with base runners in scoring position in both of these late innings.

Groom ended Bulldog hopes by inducing a ground out in the sixth and a pop up and ground out in the seventh to end the innings.

Crimson bats came alive in the eighth with Senior Haley Davis leading off with a single. At the next at bat Junior Giana Panariello doubled to deep center field to send Davis home for the first RBI of the day.

Captain Zoe Galindo laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Panariello to third and freshman Rhianna Rich ripped her own double to center, allowing Panariello to score and advancing Harvard to 2-0 to secure the win.

HARVARD 5, YALE 4

The second game on Saturday was a close bout with another full game pitched by a Crimson pitcher. Junior Taylor Cabe improved to 11-3 on the mound thanks to a three run rally in the fifth to clinch the game.

“Especially on Saturday we played with a lot of grit. The first game was decided by extra innings and the second was decided by one run,” Groom said. “I think we really pushed hard every single inning to play the best that we could.”

The Bulldogs put a run an inning on the board for the first four, but Harvard was able to cut their lead in half in the bottom of the fourth with RBIs from Panariello and Davis.

Junior Catherine Callaway started off the inning with a triple down the right field line and scored after Panariello followed suit with a triple of her own.

The momentum continued into the fifth with Rich hitting a solo homer, her second home run of the season, to close the gap to one. Classmate Meagan Lantz then launched the ball over the centerfield wall for a two-run homer to put Harvard in the lead 5-4.

Cabe and the Crimson defense let up only one hit for the last two innings to lock up the win and sweep the day.

YALE 1, HARVARD 0

Harvard dropped its first and only game of the series to Yale despite a solid performance by Groom on the mound, as the Crimson ultimately wasted several scoring opportunities

Groom and the Crimson defense gave up no hits for the first five innings, but the Bulldogs were able to break through in the sixth with two hits and a run scored. Yale’s Allison Skinner doubled to right center with two outs to drive the winning run home. Harvard was unable to answer back, leaving one runner on base to end the game.

Harvard out-hit their opponents 6-2, but several unsuccessful offensive risks and a total of five runners, including two in scoring position in the sixth, left on the bases stopped them from putting anything on the board.

“Sometimes what our team needs is a reset and we went into that first game and we fought and Yale prevailed,” Leslie said.

HARVARD 6, YALE 0

The Crimson rebounded fast from the close loss earlier in the day to score all six runs of the game in their first at bat and to tallie 14 total hits across the seven innings. Three Harvard pitchers combined to let up only one hit.

“I think that losing that game lit a fire under everyone,” Groom said. “Our offense absolutely wanted to prove that they had something in them and they really came in lights out that first inning of the second game.”

Freshman Kathleen Duncan pitched the first win of her collegiate career and classmates Nicki Nishizawa and Sarah Smith relieved her in the seventh.

—Staff writer Ginny Miller can be reached at virginiamiller@college.harvard.edu