Looking tired but terrific after playing seven games in five days, the women's softball team rolled over Tufts, 18-1, yesterday behind the superb control of Barb Mahon and the tight defense of the second team.
Mahon pitched flawless (0.00 ERA) ball, facing 30 batters and relinquishing only six hits, all singles. She vielded only three walks in her season debut as a starting pitcher.
"Barb was terrific-anybody who can come back from an Ivy tournament at 2 Monday morning, write a 25 page paper in the afternoon, and then pitch like that is truly amazing," coach Kit Morris said.
The outcome was never in question as Harvard blasted to an 11-0 lead in a single first inning. Tufts peaked offensively in the second. Scoring a baserunner on a long single.
The team pounded Tufts with 22 hits during the game-17singles, 4 doubles, and a triple. Lisa "Mouse" Bernstein even squeaked into second on a steal, exasperating the Tufts team. Tufts played a basic seive strategy, yielding six errors during the game.
The starting Harvard line-up was rested after the first two innings, so they could recover from their play all weekend, and the second team went to work just like the first. The bench knocked in 2 runs on 4 hits while playing airtight defense, allowing Tufts the satisfaction only of connecting with the ball, grounding out or popping up to the infield.
Defensive standouts for the Crimson nine included shortstop Landya "Whiz Kid" Boyer, a freshman who snatched up Tufts line-drives like a gambler grabs the dice at a craps table.
Offensive stars for Harvard (a team batting over..300) included Ellen Jakovic. Lisa Bernstein, and Pat Horne, all of whom went three for three.
"Everybody played well-but the second team played superb," co-captain Betty Ippolito said. "Basically we had three goals coming into today's game: to have a shutout, to score 30 runs, and to get everybody into the game. We missed the first one by a run, blew the second and made the third," she added.
Coach Morris expressed surprise and satisfaction with the play of the second team. "I was really happy with their performance," he said. "The February Workouts really payed off-they hit their cut-offs and relays and yelled for all the pop-ups," he added.
"This late in the season the temptation is really to look ahead; we're 11-4 right now and still have four more games to play." Morris said. "My goal is to win all the remaining games, especially the one against Curry College who beat us last year," he added. It will be a grude match," he said.
Ippolito also want to go 4 for 4 in the remaining games, but to her and the team, the real treat will come May 9 when the Crimson replays Brown in providence.
"Penn and Princeton beat us in a squeaker this past weekend, but we showed a lot of people that we can play ball and win." n Ippolito said. "Brown who we beat this weekend made us a bet on Saturday that if we bet Yale that they would take us all to Steve"s for ice cream next time we play them-we aim to collect on lur debts," she said.
NOTEBOOKIvy League tournament honors were passed out this weekend. Senior Betty Ippolito won an all-Ivy nod for her 8for 16 weekend. Honorable mentions went to junior Elaine Holpuch. Who batted,429: junior Gill Raney, who batted, 333: and sophomore Pat Horne, who batted .333... Scorekeeper Janice Nevin has won a Rotary fellowship and will study in England next year.
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