Soldiers Field became Bright Center yesterday afternoon during the Harvard-Smith softball game.

The Zamboni machine could have done a couple of laps around the field. The Green Bay Packers could have held a scrimmage. The players would have been better off playing with electric blankets under their uniforms.

But Elizabeth Crowley didn't need a blanket to wrap around her bat, and starting pitcher Lora Rowning's arm was all the heat she needed.

Crowley's five RBIs and Rowning's four-inning shutout performance helped the Crimson (4-1) burn Smith, 10-1, during a day when the thermometer read well below normal for ideal playing conditions.

"It was a tough day to play softball," Harvard Coach John Wentzell said. "We could tell it was going to be one of those days."

So did the visiting Pioneers (1-5), who gave the game away in the bottom of the second inning by committing two errors. Add three walks allowed by pitcher Cindy Corbett, and the Crimson picked up four runs on only one hit.

"It was not really one of our best games," Smith Coach Bonnie May said, "We committed a lot of mental mistakes."

Rowning (2-1), however, was as cool-headed as the weather. The Crimson hurler allowed her only hit in the fourth inning--a blooper by Tanya Culbertson. Before the single, Rowning had retired nine Pioneers. In four innings, she struck out three batters and walked only one.

Sophomore Lee Polikoff finished up for Rowning to pick up the save. In three innings, Polikoff gave up a run on two hits but also struck out Jan Tyne twice. The sophomore retired the side in the seventh inning.

Harvard scored two more runs in the fourth inning, as Crowley (now batting .667 for the year) drove in both Beth McNamara and Nancy Prior with a single through the hole to give the Crimson a 6-0 lead.

The lefty-hitting centerfielder was up again the next inning with the bases loaded. This time, Crowley went the opposite field with a liner that streaked past leftfielder Peg Cokowoski. Crowley wound up at third base with three more RBIs in her pocket. She scored Harvard's 10th run on an error by Culbertson.

"I just went to left field with the pitch because it was an outside pitch," said Crowley, who has now driven in seven runs, "and I was just lucky it went that far."

Corbett went the distance for the Pioneers and allowed only five hits. She did, however, have some problems finding the plate, giving up 10 walks and striking out nobody.

Runs

Co-Captain Mary Baldauf and Ellen Cox each scored twice for the Crimson. Cox got the Crimson's sole hit, a single, during the four-run second inning.

Cox, who substituted for Beth Wambach in left field, also made two key putouts in the fifth inning with a runner on second base.

The Pioneers got their only run of the game in the sixth inning on consecutive hits by Cokowoski and Daniel Cimino. Cokowoski tripled and scored on Cimino's single.

Polikoff was still in somewhat of a jam when she walked Corbett after Cimino's single. But the sophomore got Missy Petchen to pop out to shortstop Sharon Hayes and caught Tyne looking for the final out of the inning.

The Crimson will now try to thaw out tomorrow and Sunday when it visits Penn and Princeton down south for the beginning of its Ivy season.

Maybe by then, no Zambonis will be necessary.