Softball Wins to Close Out Regular Season

When Cornell and Harvard met towards the end the season a year ago, the Big Red dealt the Crimson a crushing extra-inning defeat that cost Harvard the Ivy title.

This Saturday's game, however, was merely an opportunity for the already-crowned Ivy champion Crimson to assert its dominance over the upset-minded defending champions.

With freshman pitcher Tiffany Whitton on the mound, the Big Red had no chance. She tossed a three-hit shutout and struck out seven to lead Harvard to a 3-0 win. The shutout gave the Crimson (19-19, 11-1 Ivy) an upbeat ending to its regular season and prevented the Big Red (28-16, 3-7) from succeeding in the spoiler's role.

"It really dawned on us that we needed to approach every game like the second against Dartmouth, that is, feeling relaxed and confident," said captain Ghia Godfree, referring to Thursday's 2-0 win that clinched the Ivy title. "Our main motivation was to show Cornell that we could beat them [convincingly], since we beat them by such a slim margin last time."

For the first four innings, Cornell ace Nicole Zitarelli managed to keep Harvard off the scoreboard, but in the fifth, the Crimson finally broke the game open.

Senior Jessie Amberg opened the inning with a single. Harvard made that leadoff hit count as Whitton bunted Amberg over to second and Godfree drove her home with a single to center.

The Crimson was not done yet. Next up was captain Deborah Abeles, who had homered off of Zitarelli in Harvard's dramatic 1-0 win over Cornell on April 10th that set the tone for the teams' respective seasons. Zitarelli didn't give Abeles anything to hit this time, walking her for the first of two times on the day.

Zitarelli nearly escaped the jam when she got McKendry to hit a potential double-play ball. The Big Red managed to force Abeles at second, but got nothing more as McKendry beat the throw to first.

That force would be the last out that Zitarelli would see for a while. Sophomore Sarah Koppel singled to drive home Godfree and extend the lead to 2-0. After freshman Monica Montijo singled to load the bases, senior Crystal Springer added another run with an RBI single to center.

The inning finally ended when junior pinch-hitter Jen Crusius hit a grounder and Springer was forced out at second. That inning would provide all the scoring Harvard would get on the day, and all the scoring it needed.

Whitton kept Cornell from getting any kind of clutch hit. Over the first four innings, she walked five and gave up two hits, but she allowed no more than two baserunners in a single inning and held the Big Red hitless in four tries with runners in scoring position.

Once Whitton get the lead, she settled down and dominated the Cornell lineup. Over the last three innings, she gave up just one hit and struck out three without walking anyone. Whitton ended the game with style, beating Big Red pinch hitter Julie Staub with a strikeout, her seventh of the day.

Whitton earned her third win in two weekends, to improve her record to 3-1 on the year. Zitarelli--who started her college career with a 32-5 record--watched her record drop to 1-5 in Ivy play and 5-8 overall since giving up that game-winning home run to Abeles in April.

"[Cornell] might be down because they've had such a disappointing season," Godfree said. "But they still played a good game. We only beat them 3-0."

The Crimson pitching staff finished its regular season looking as solid as it had been all year. Harvard's pitchers now have a 15-inning scoreless streak going into the NCAA Regionals. Junior Suzanne Guy and Whitton are the first Harvard pitchers to record back-to-back shutouts since the 1998 Harvard team went into Regionals with shutouts in seven of its last ten games, including a perfect game by Tasha Cupp '98.

With the win, the Crimson avoided its first losing regular season since 1994.

"That was an important motivating factor," Godfree said. "We really wanted to have that .500 record going into Regionals."

While this year's Ivy championship squad will not be able to equal the 1998 team's perfect 12-0 Ivy record and 34-22 record overall, according to Godfree, this team is unmatched in terms of its heart.

"We've been through a lot more off the field this season," Godfree said. "The team's been through a lot of personal tragedies this year, and we've always been there for each other. But through everything, we still managed to win the Ivy League title."