Softball, Big Green Split To End Season

The rain that fell on the Harvard softball team throughout its season-ending doubleheader on the road against Dartmouth had to seem oddly appropriate.

Given all the obstacles the squad has had to overcome this season—a vicious slew of injuries, scheduling difficulties, deflating losses—it felt strangely just that the natural elements would conspire against it too.

The Crimson (18-20, 9-5 Ivy), however, endured the weather to earn a split of the wet twinbill with the Big Green (10-24-1, 5-9) at Sachem Field and clinch third place in the Ivy League.

Although hopes for a .500 season were dashed in the opener, junior Michele McAteer spun a gem for Harvard in the second game to salvage the split and give the team’s seniors a win in their last collegiate outing.

“There’s a lot of sincerity in the team for the seniors,” Crimson coach Jenny Allard said. “We’re not going to win all the time, we’re not going to be at full strength all the time, but we’re going to enjoy being out here and that’s really what came through.”

HARVARD 2, DARTMOUTH 0

McAteer helped the Crimson end its season with a win, hurling a three-hit shutout in the nightcap of a rainy double-header at Dartmouth.

“It was just a good way to finish the season,” McAteer said. “On a high note.”

Winless on the season entering the game, McAteer turned in one of most impressive performances of the year from the circle, completely silencing a Big Green attack that had torched Harvard pitching in the opener.

McAteer didn’t strike out a single batter—but she hardly needed to, getting 15 ground-ball outs and five pop flies on the infield. In fact, the team’s outfielders only recorded one out for the entire game, a pop foul snagged by left fielder Susie Winkeller in the sixth.

“I could have them hit ground balls,” McAteer said. “And have the [defense] make the plays. They really got their jobs done.”

The most threatening moment came in the bottom of the fourth, when Dartmouth used two of its three singles and a Crimson error to load the bases with one out. McAteer promptly got a come-backer that she threw home for the force out at the plate and an easy pop-up to shortstop to escape the jam.

Harvard managed only four hits of its own against Big Green starter Karin Edwardson but made the most of its scoring opportunities with scrappy rallies in the third and seventh innings.

Sophomore Lauren Brown led off the top of the third with a walk. She then swiped second and came around to score on a groundout and an error.

In its last at-bat the Crimson gave McAteer more of a cushion as she prepared to nail down the win. Senior Lauren Stefanchik delivered a two-out single with runners on second and third. Sophomore Susie Winkeller, 2-for-2 with a walk for the game, scored on the play.

And McAteer, who has been bothered by tendinitis and rotator cuff woes in her shoulder all year, finished the game in the same convincing fashion that she began it—with a brisk 1-2-3 inning, retiring all three hitters on ground balls.

“I haven’t pitched that long all year really,” McAteer said. “But it was a pretty quick game, with short innings, and I felt good.”

DARTMOUTH 9, HARVARD 2

A couple of bases-loaded hits by the Big Green doomed Harvard and the offense it displayed against Columbia the day before was notably absent in game one as it suffered a sound 9-2 defeat.

The loss hammered home the team’s disappointment at falling out of the Ivy race down the stretch.

“It’s hard not to come in first,” McAteer said. “Because that was what we were hoping for [and] expecting.”

Freshman Shelly Madick closed out a promising rookie campaign with a disappointing start, as she was touched up for five runs and seven hits in three innings of work. Dartmouth centerfielder Kalie Jackson smacked a two-out, bases-loaded triple in the bottom of the third to cap a four-run inning to plunge the Crimson into a 5-0 hole.

Reliever Becky Voaklander fared no better, surrendering a grand slam to Kelly Fry in the sixth.

“The weather was really bad,” McAteer said. “And they were hitting the ball.”

Meanwhile, the Harvard bats were silenced by Big Green freshman Angela Megaw, who held the Crimson to six hits. Despite drawing five walks, Harvard only capitalized once, courtesy of three of its seniors.

Beth Sabin drove in Stefanchik and Lauren Bettinelli with a one-out double in the fifth. Stefanchik, the only player in the lineup to post a multi-hit game, was 2-for-4 but was caught stealing earlier in the game for the first time all year, leaving her an impressive 16-for-17 in stolen base attempts for the season.

The bruising loss, however, did not discourage a Harvard team used to its share of bitterness and misfortune.

“We wanted to come out and finish strong no matter what’s at stake,” Bettinelli said. “And you want to bounce back after losses and finish out the whole season. Every time we’ve lost a game where a lot of teams would back down or get down, we’ve always just looked forward and been really positive.”

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.