Engineers Scoot Past Crimson Batswomen, 6-1

There weren't too many clouds in the sky yesterday afternoon--but those few hovering above the MIT athletic fields were trying their darndest to look threatening.

An upset was in the air.

For four and a half innings, the storm clouds gathered.

After that, Engineer bats thundered into action, forecasting doom for the Harvard softball team.

A sudden spring shower of five MIT runs in the bottom of the fifth toppled a precarious 1-0 Crimson edge, and effectively sealed the victory for the hosts.

"They were knocking on the door a few times, and finally they broke it in," Harvard Coach John Wentzell said. "They were hitting it where we weren't, and eventually that's going to take its toll."

When the clouds--and the dust--finally cleared, the Engineers (now 1-1) had nabbed a 6-1 victory, and handed the listless Crimson (2-1) its first loss of the season.

A loss that had been in the works from the time the first MIT batter stepped to the plate.

While the batswomen went down one-two-three four times on the afternoon, the Engineers had runners on base in every frame--with their leadoff batter reaching four of six times.

And although it took until the fateful fifth for MIT to push a run across the plate, Harvard starter Janet Dickerman was working out of a hole all afternoon.

Meanwhile, Engineer hurler Karen Krans kept tossing fat ones across the plate for the eager Crimson batters--who kept hitting'em where they were.

Straight at the left side of the MIT infield.

Engineer shortstop Stacy Thompson and third baseman Diane DiMassa had a hand in 11 of Harvard's 21 outs.

"We need to be more disciplined at the plate offensively--if we're drilling it at third all the time, we're ahead of the ball," Wentzell said. "We haven't really exploded offensively yet."

MIT, on the other hand, hit its stride quickly. In the bottom of the first, the Engineers mounted a basesloaded threat and sent catcher Julie Brown to the plate with two outs.

Before Brown--the only lefty in the MIT lineup--faced southpaw Dickerman, she received the following dubious encouragement from her third base coach: "Here's a nice lefty for you, Julie."

Perhaps the coach forgot that a lefty-lefty match-up should prove beneficial to the pitcher; or maybe he was just joshing.

Whatever the case, Dickerman retired Brown on a lazy fly to right, and Harvard breathed a collective sigh of relief.

In the top of the second, the Crimson--which had scored first in each of its previous two contests--hit the mini-jackpot. With two down, freshman center fielder Elizabeth Crowley drove a low pitch from Krans into center for a double, and scored on a single to left by Gerri Rubin.

For the next three innings, the score hung tenuously at 1-0, with the Engineers stranding runners in consecutive innings on first, second and third.

Unfortunately for Harvard, MIT couldn't find a new base to strand its runners on in the fifth.

What ensued was a walk, a pair of singles, a pair of grounders that shortstop Hayes couldn't convert to outs, a bunt, and a two-run squibbler to the right of the pitcher's mound.

In other words, a temporary--but fatal--breakdown of poise.

The Engineers added another tally in the bottom of the sixth to go up, 6-1, but the Crimson hadn't quite given up hope.

Hayes reached on an error by the shortstop, and Crowley singled to center to open up the botom of the seventh. Two outs later, however, Co-Captain Mary Sheehan hit a Yaz-esque pop-up to third, putting an end to the comeback hopes.

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard hosts a tough Vermont squad Saturday, in a Soldiers Field doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.....Freshman Ellen Cox had her first start, dh-ing for Dickerman...Crowley led the Crimson with three hits...Harvard's lineup had another slight change, with Trisha Brown (formerly the number five hitter) batting cleanup, and Hayes moving from the fourth to the fifth slot...The Engineers batted around in the fifth.