Hungry For Another Ring

The last time Harvard stepped off the Ivy diamond, it was after a heartbreaking 5-2 loss at home to Dartmouth, which clinched the Ivy North Division title for the Big Green and ended Ancient Eight championship hopes for the Crimson.

This season, a strong Harvard team looks to pick up where it left off last year, in search of retribution against Dartmouth and an elusive yet possible Ivy League title.

“If [losing to the Big Green] hurts this bad, there’s a reason for it,” Crimson coach Jenny Allard says. “And maybe this is what’s going to really motivate us [this] year.”

Of course, it’s not just Dartmouth that Harvard is setting its sights on this season.

“Basically, we want to beat everybody,” co-captain Margaux Black says. “Literally, everybody.”

The Crimson, which boasts an experienced lineup that includes six seniors, will rely on upperclassman leadership to carry the team.

“The coaches have to have the vision,” Allard says. “But the seniors sit at the front of the bus and they say, ‘This is where I’m going,’ and they get everybody on board. When you have more people in the front of the bus than the back of the bus, the bus really goes fast, and you don’t want to steer off course.”

The Harvard seniors are the only members of this year’s team with an Ivy League title under their belts, having won the 2006 championship. But the Crimson has experience up and down the lineup, returning seven position starters from last year’s squad—led by All-Ivy selections senior Jennifer Francis, co-captain Melissa Schellberg, and juniors Emily Henderson and Ellen Macadam.

But a strong class of seven freshmen expect to make an impact as well. Rookie outfielder Ashley Heritage adds her speed to Harvard’s repertoire, joining Henderson, last year’s Ivy leader in stolen bases, and Macadam as prime weapons on the base paths.

“The basic theme of the year is speed kills weak skills,” Allard says.

The Crimson has a very deep roster this season, especially at catcher, as senior Jess Pledger, along with three freshmen—Megan Fazzio, Olivia Piccione, and Mariel Sena—could contribute from behind home plate.

“Player for player, this is the strongest team that we’ve had,” senior pitcher Dana Roberts comments. “And I feel like we’ve had a lot more focus, really good training through the entire month of February.”

Sophomore Jane Alexander, whose play was limited by injury last season, steps into the starting role at shortstop, while Schellberg, who is also a Crimson sports editor, is back for her fourth year as the starting third baseman. Returning starters sophomore Whitney Shaw at first base and Macadam at second base round out the infield.

Sophomore Mari Zumbro is no longer in the pitching rotation but will likely contribute defensively at the corners and offensively at the plate. Francis, who was one of Harvard’s two representatives on the 2009 All-Ivy First Team, returns to anchor right field, while senior Stephanie Krysiak and Henderson complete the outfield.

“We’re just trying to take all parts of our game and make them better,” Allard says. “We want our power hitters to really hit more home runs, deep balls, drive the ball deep. We want our contact hitters to be the toughest outs in the lineup, and we want our speed people to get on base. I think we’re looking to be more dynamic offensively.”

Last year, the young Crimson squad struggled with offensive inconsistencies. Harvard ranked first in fielding percentage and third in ERA in the Ivy League, but was sixth in the conference with a .267 batting average.

“It’s a matter of really pushing ourselves offensively,” Allard says, “and scoring the runs we need to score and having very timely hitting.”

This season, the Crimson defense—especially the pitching staff—appears to be the key to unlocking the team’s potential. Harvard returns sophomore Rachel Brown, last year’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year, to the rotation. Brown is coming off a season in which she set a new program record with 211 strikeouts, pitched 15 complete games, and earned first-team All-Ivy honors.

Joining Brown on the mound this season will be freshman Jessica Ferri, Black, and sophomore Julia Moore. All four of these pitchers will most likely be starters, giving the Crimson a more balanced rotation than it has boasted in the past.

“Our defense has been right on the mark,” Allard says. “That’s something that we’re confident in, we’re strong in. That’s something that we really need to feel, that our defense combined with our pitching can really limit and stop the opposition.”

Conference losses to division bottom-dwellers Columbia and Brown came back to haunt the Crimson last year as the season drew to a close, so it is a major goal of the team to limit early defeats in the hopes of securing its third trip to the Ivy League Championship Series in four years.

“Anything can happen,” Black says. “It’s a game of inches, so you’ve got to go out there with everything you’ve got, 110 percent, always. Any team can win. We play a lot of teams four times, so you just have to be on your game always and never take anyone for granted.”