Softball Gets Shut Out By Crosstown Eagles

What began as a trickle turned into a flood as the BC Eagles unleashed an offensive downpour against the Harvard softball team.

Coming of a difficult weekend road-trip, where the Crimson (26-9, 10-2 Ivy) had its league championship hopes slip away, Harvard was ineffectual on both sides of the plate in a 9-0 loss to the Eagles.

“We didn’t bring our best game and the scoreboard showed it,” said sophomore Breanne Cooley. “BC hit the ball really well and I don’t think our intensity level was as high as it usually is.”

The Eagles (23-22) came in to the game riding a four-game winning streak against the Crimson, including two straight mercy rule decisions.

Offensively, the Crimson was unable to move past first base, where they stranded two and had another runner caught stealing.

“BC’s pitcher was throwing strong and we didn’t make adjustments quick enough,” said sophomore second baseman Sara Williamson.

Harvard’s only hit came on senior Lisa Watanabe’s single in the fourth, but by then it was too little too late.

BC opened the scoring in the first with a sacrifice fly that brought in the runner at third. Harvard was able to get out of the inning when BC’s Michelle Daly struck out swinging.

The teams then traded scoreless at-bats, before the Eagles came up to hit in the third. Harvard senior Suzanne Guy came in to relieve sophomore Kara Brotemarkle to start the inning, and quickly allowed a single to BC’s Erin Mackey. After stealing second, Mackey scored after BC ran off two straight singles. Harvard let up another steal to put two runners in scoring position. BC’s Lisa Fischer wasted no time bringing them home as she doubled to right center.

Harvard then brought in freshman Lauren Tanner to relieve Guy, who had only managed to secure one out. Tanner was not much better against the Eagles, quickly letting up an RBI double to Daly. The next batter popped up to second base, bringing the Crimson one step closer to ending the inning. Then, BC’s Elyse Meredith singled, but reached second on an error by Watanabe. This also allowed Daly to score BC’s fifth run of the inning and sixth of the game. The next batter struck out looking, ending the inning with the game now out of reach.

“They just hit the ball really well, and were able to string together a lot of big hits,” said Williamson. “They have a lot of good hitters who came out there and did the job.”

The next inning, Harvard could not start a rally behind Watanabe’s single, stranding her at first after a series of pop-ups. Tanner started the fourth for the Crimson, and was again unable to keep the Eagles off the board. BC’s Mackey doubled to start the bottom half of the inning and came home after BC’s all-time home-run leader Cara Blumfield hit her seventh long ball of the year. This capped the day’s scoring as Tanner was able to escape the inning with her third strikeout of the afternoon.

The win went to BC’s Kim Ryan, who allowed only one hit and two walks in five innings of work. She also sprinkled in four strikeouts to secure another shutout win against the Crimson. Ryan, a junior, has beaten Harvard in all three years of her career and dominated in this appearance.

“I felt we could have jumped on her more,” Cooley said. “It was just that difference between being really, really hungry to get a hit”

Harvard has a doubleheader against Dartmouth this weekend before facing BC again next week, this time at home. “Right now it’s all about pride and finishing strong,” said Williamson. “We definately want to see BC again, to show them and show ourselves that we can play with them.”

A repeat of yesterday’s performance would mean a poor end to an otherwise strong season, a fate that the Crimson would like to avoid.

“We’re not focused on winning the Ivies now, we’re focused on coming out of this with the best record we can,” Williamson said.