Brown's Dominance On Display Again

Eleven days ago, sophomore Rachel Brown pitched the game of her collegiate career—a no-hit, no-walk performance in Harvard softball’s Ivy opener at Princeton.

And on Sunday, she did it again.

Brown’s second no-hitter in as many weekends—this one another walk-free performance that gave the Crimson a 3-0 win over Columbia—may not have been so surprising this time around, but it was no less impressive.

“Especially in softball, it’s so easy to just give up a little bloop hit with a little bit of bad luck,” senior Dana Roberts said. “To throw two [no-hitters] against Princeton and Columbia, who aren’t weak teams by any means, really shows a level of focus [that] shows just how strong Rachel is…It’s really an outstanding accomplishment.”

With Harvard a bit discouraged after a 5-4 loss in Saturday’s second game against Penn—its first loss to the Quakers since April 23, 2006—Brown put her squad back on the right track from the get-go in Sunday’s opener.

Though a first-inning fielding error meant that a perfect game was never in the cards, the sophomore didn’t let up. She struck out the side in the second and fifth innings on her way to a 12-strikeout performance and didn’t allow another baserunner in the game.

But through five innings of play, Lions rookie Maureen O’Kane matched Brown pitch for pitch, taking a no-hitter of her own into the fifth and keeping the scoreboard blank until the bottom of the sixth.

The Crimson offense came through in that inning, leading off with a pair of singles that chased O’Kane from the game and eventually staking Brown to a 3-0 lead with an inning to go.

“It’s always nerve-wracking the last inning, trying not to spoil it,” the sophomore admitted. “It [was] definitely running through my head.”

And Brown delivered, closing out the contest with an emphatic strikeout to seal her second near-perfect game.

“She was hitting her spots especially well,” said senior Jessica Pledger, who caught both of Brown’s no-hitters. “She’s able to stay really calm on the mound—she has a lot of confidence on the mound in what she throws.”

But while the sophomore hurler’s two no-hitters were nearly identical, she took her consistency to a new level this weekend.

After her no-no at Princeton, Brown struggled the next day at Cornell, giving up six runs in just 2.1 innings of work against the South Division’s top squad.

She followed that performance up with a complete-game win at Holy Cross on Tuesday, but still fell short of her usual standards, again giving up six runs—including a fifth-inning grand slam.

This weekend, Brown put those struggles behind her.

“The last week after Cornell and Holy Cross, Rachel had a lot of things to work out,” Roberts said. “She did a great job of making those adjustments and coming up strong.”

“She got ahead of almost every batter she faced in her no-hitter against Columbia, which is really key for her to be able to put the batters away,” Roberts added. “Her rise ball was really on, and neither Penn nor Columbia’s batters could even come close to it…It was the best I’ve seen from her in a long time.”

Though the no-hitter was the crown jewel of Brown’s weekend, she finished the four-game Ivy set with two wins, a save, and 14 innings of scoreless softball—allowing just six hits and striking out a combined 26.

“It definitely gives me confidence,” Brown said. “This performance helps me with my mental game, and I feel really confident after these games.”

The sophomore’s mettle is evident in her statistics, as her 1.67 ERA and 131 strikeouts are good for tops in the Ancient Eight.

But the stat most telling about Brown’s importance to the Crimson squad is maybe the least glamorous. Her 9-4 record and two saves mean that the hurler has played a leading role in 11 of Harvard’s 14 wins this season.

“She’s so consistent—you know that you’re going to get a solid start out of her every time,” Roberts said. “It lets the defense and the offense have a no-pressure approach and have fun out there, and I think that’s reflected in the way the bats perform behind her.”

Brown’s already cemented her place in Harvard softball history. But as the sophomore proved this weekend, the best may be yet to come.

“She’s definitely her own harshest critic, but in a way that really makes her strive for excellence,” Roberts said. “She’s never satisfied with her own performance—she’s always looking for ways to get better…I can’t wait to see how she performs in the last [three] weekends of Ivy play.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.