The Harvard softball team, despite two recent losses to Boston College and Smith, is off to a hot start. The Crimson is 5-2 and geared up for this weekend's Ivy League action against Penn and Princeton.

The driving force behind the batswomen's success has been the excellent pitchin of Gerri Rubin (4-1, 2.97 ERA) and Janet Dickerman (1-1, 3.06). The most pleasant surprise, however, has been the offensive production.

Last year's Harvard squad, which finished the season with an 11-10 record, averaged only 3.9 runs per game. This year's team, through its seven contests, is averaging two full runs better, with 5.9.

And every extra bit of padding takes some pressure off Rubin and Dickerman giving them a little breathing space on the mound.

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Leading the Crimson attack are two freshmen, second baseman Mary Baldauf and shortstop Sharon Hayes.

Beldauf, who bats second in the order, currently tops the squad with a 450 batting average. With five walks to go along with her nine hits, Bladauf has an incredible on-base percentage of 550.

Hayes, batting fifth, hitting at a 421 clip. She, too, has proved adept at drawing the free pass, with six walks on the year--working out to another .560 obp.

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Despite proving proficient at putting people on, however, the Crimson has had some problems with stranded baserunners.

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The Cantabs have averaged almost seven runners left on base per game this season--which works out to nearly one an inning (official softball games last seven, rather than nine, innings).

One person who hasn't been slacking off in knocking in those runners, though, is slugger Trisha Brown.

Brown, Harvard's first baseman and cleanup hitter, already has accumulated 10 RBI. She's come through with the big hits, like a three-run doubl in the first game of Saturday's Mt. Holyoke doubleheader, and a three-run homer in the nightcap.

Another consistent clutch hitter has been catcher Gia Barresi, steaming along at a 360 pace Barresi got the game winnnig RBI in the Holyoke opener

Leading the squad in extra-base hits is Baldauf, with three-two doubles and a home run.

In fact, as a team, Harvard is setting quite a slugging pace. Along with Baldauf and Brown. Hayes has also smacked a round-tripper--the seventh-inning game-winner that boosted the Crimson over Wheaton Monday.

All of last year, the Cantabs produced just one home run.

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The Harvard pitchers are also setting quite a pace in the whiffs department.

Dickerman, in only 16 innings pitched, has already struck out nine-just one shy of the 10 she recorded last season in 13 innings.

Rubin should also better her 1984 mark. She has fanned 14 in 33 framey, more than half of last year's total of 27 (over 89 innings).

The overall Crimson strikeout/walk ratio, however, is only borderline at 23/22. Rubin's individula ratio is 14/11, while Dickerman's is 9/11.

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This is the first year that the bats women will not be travelling to one site to participate in an Ivy tournament. In past years, the five varsity squads (Harvard, Yale, Brown, Penn and Princeton) along with the two club teams (Cornell and Dartmouth) would meet for one weekend of round-robin play.

This season, however, the league games are spread out over the course of the season, with the squads meeting for weekend doubleheaders.

The Crimson has its work cut out this weekend with Penn and Princeton in town-last year's squad lost to the Quakers, 13-3 and tell to the league champion Tigers, 9-1.