FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Tiffany Whitton

One cheer from the Harvard softball team could spell impending doom for opposing pitchers. If they didn’t sense the strength of the player at the plate right away, then they quickly learned. “T. Whitt—Hit!” heralded the approach of junior tri-captain Tiffany Whitton, the national leader in runs driven in per game, and few could stop her.

The story of Whitton’s 2002 season does not read like a fairy tale where everything goes right in the end. The sole junior on a young Harvard team with 15 freshmen and sophomores, she had hopes of helping Harvard both on the mound and at the plate. She did lead the Crimson in both ERA and hitting through March, but tendonitis put her pitching career on hold.

The injuries shut down her arm, but they could not quiet her bat or subdue her heart. Whitton set aside her pitching woes and produced the best offensive season in Harvard history.

She gave Harvard’s regular No. 1 and No. 2 hitters arguably the most gratifying jobs on the team. They knew if they reached base, Whitton was there in the three-hole to drive them home at a rate unmatched by anyone in college softball.

Whitton made improbable comebacks probable.

Facing a 4-2 last-inning deficit in a must-win Ivy game against Princeton, victory seemed a remote possibility at best when sophomore seven-hole hitter Breanne Cooley stepped to the plate with the bases empty and one out. Yet Cooley had faith that if she started a rally, her teammates would carry it on.

How right she was.

Five batters and four Harvard hits later, the most pressure-filled burden fell on Whitton’s shoulders—bases loaded, two outs, down by one. With a clean drive over the right field fence, she assured her teammates’ effort would be rewarded with an extra life in the Ivy race.

That moment summed up the mixed success of Whitton’s season. Harvard was trailing in the game largely because Whitton had failed to preserve a 2-1 lead after coming on in relief.

To redeem herself, she needed her teammates to come through with the first four hits of the rally. Her teammates needed her to make the clutch hit in the end. It worked.

“I really felt like I owed it to the team,” Whitton said. “We worked so hard today and my pitching performance wasn’t really there. I gave what I had, but my pitches weren’t breaking, and [Princeton] was a good-hitting team, so they hit the ball hard. I can’t thank my teammates enough for rallying.”

Whitton never took the mound again for the rest of the season, instead focusing her energies where she could do the most to help the team—at the plate.

“She said, ‘Coach, I really think I can help the team hitting, so I’ll concentrate on my hitting,’ and I said, ‘Okay, go hit,’ and she hit,” said Harvard Coach Jenny Allard.

And did she ever hit. In a doubleheader against Penn the day after the Princeton game, the Quakers pitched around her in Game One and got burned by her teammates. In Game Two, they decided they had no choice but to pitch to her. Whitton promptly pounded three home runs out of the park, tying the long-standing NCAA single-game home run record.

The good times would not continue after that week, as Cornell topped Harvard 5-1 in the first game of a doubleheader and Whitton quickly had to accept that the Crimson’s Ivy title hopes were finished. The coveted Ivy title and NCAA berth would instead go to Princeton.

But Whitton’s team hung together and won out the remainder of its Ivy schedule. Harvard earned an ECAC tournament berth to continue its season and Whitton hit 9-for-12 to lift the Crimson to the championship, taking MVP honors in the process.

Her team’s ECAC title and 31-10 final record were both unprecedented in school history. It wasn’t the ideal ending for Whitton, but it was a grand one nonetheless.

“You can’t really compare [ECACs and NCAAs],” Whitton said. “But it’s a great feeling to give Harvard its first ECAC championship and go out as champions.”

There was another moment of redemption for Whitton in the ECAC tournament. Harvard got another chance against Sarah Sterman, the Cornell ace who had dealt Harvard its fatal Ivy defeat. With the game tied in extra innings with two outs, Whitton drove a double into right field to score sophomore Sara Williamson all the way from first for the game-winning run.

While that kind of clutch hitting may have appeared routine for Whitton by the end of the season, it wasn’t. Each at-bat was a different challenge.

“Every one is really scary,” Whitton said. “Every one I just want to hit the ball. Those are the only thoughts going through my head—make contact, make contact.”

Whitton was so focused on the task at hand that she was legitimately stunned to find she had been named Ivy Player of the Year, and a week later, NFCA First Team Regional All-American. As for her ascent to first in the nation in RBI per game, third in home runs per game and sixth in batting average, she said she never expected it.

“She has a lot of respect for other players,” Allard said. “She’s very graceful, and gracious as well.”

The question remains as to how Whitton really compares to the other elite players at the national level. The NFCA didn’t think that highly of her, leaving her off their three All-American teams. But she never had a chance to prove herself against the country’s best this season.

Past evidence suggests that Whitton could hold her own. Harvard played 2002 NCAA champion California three times her sophomore year, and Whitton hit 3-for-6 in those games. Whitton’s career NCAA numbers from her freshman year stand at 3-for-7 with two doubles, a home run and three RBI.

Whitton agrees that she’s capable of an even better season than this past year.

“I just go in and hope for the best,” Whitton said. “I don’t know how next season will be. Hopefully better. There’s always more to improve on.“

Whitton’s performance stuns even Allard, who could still see room for improvement at the end of the ECAC tournament.

“She’s still missing good pitches,” Allard said. “It’s scary that the kid’s hitting [near] .500. I mean, look at what she can do. She’s incredible.”

Tiffany Whitton

By the Numbers

Batting Average .457 6th in the nation, 3rd in Harvard history

Home Runs 13 3rd in nation (per game), 1st in Harvard history

RBI 49 1st in nation (per game), 2nd in Harvard history