Playing its best so far this season the Harvard softball team destroyed a hapless Cornell club squad, 9-3 and 11-1, with a potent offensive attack and strong performances on the mound Saturday at Soldiers Field.

For the first time this season, the Crimson put together all of the elements of a good team: excellent pitching, solid defense and timely hitting. Starters Julie Fromholz and Nancy Sparrow combined for 18 strikeouts and only one walk, while the defense came up with some impressive fielding plays despite yielding two unearned runs.

At the plate, Harvard finally displayed the kind of consistent hitting that is needed to win ballgames. Every Crimson starter got at least one hit in the two games and the execution of sacrifice hits, bunts and stealing was excellent.

Harvard (3-16 overall, 1-3 Ivy) broke out to an early lead in the opening game, scoring three runs off losing pitcher Andrea Panico in the bottom of the first inning on a pair of singles and an error.

The Crimson picked up a run in the second, giving Sparrow a four-run cushion, which was all that she needed to secure the win. The freshman hurler pitched a spectacular game, yielding one earned run and striking out 10 in a seven inning complete game victory.

Harvard scored a run in each of the next four innings to take a 9-1 lead before Cornell managed to scrape up two runs in the fifth to account for the final score.

From Holz to...

Cornell leapt out to an early lead in the second contest of the afternoon, jumping on Fromholz for a run in the top of the first.

It was the last time the Cornell bench would have cause to cheer.

After Sparrow, playing shortstop, once again led off with a single, Co-Captain Beth Reilly, who was 3-for-5 in the twin bill, stepped into the box. The junior thirdbaseman showed why her teammates call her "Ripper," blasting a two-run homer deep to left field and silencing the visitors' dugout.

The Cornell bats went silent as well in the face of great pitching from Fromholz, who struck out eight and walked none while surrendering only one run in her six-inning stint.

On offense, the Crimson continued its mauling of Cornell starter Renee Vaia, pounding out six runs in a fifth inning explosion that saw 11 Harvard players come to the plate.

The ugly massacre came to an end in the bottom of the sixth, when Harvard catcher Liz Resnick invoked the 10-run rule by blasting a dinger to the gap in left-center with runners on first and second. Resnick, 3-for-5 with three RBI on the day, forced a premature ending of the game under a rule in college softball which requires that a game be called if the home team is leading by more than 10 runs at the end of any inning.

NOTEBOOK: The Crimson has suffered a rash of injuries in the last several weeks that could seriously affect them in their upcoming games. Harvard will be without freshman pitcher Christine Carr, who is out for the season due to an ankle injury. Also questionable are starting secondbaseman Rachel Donaldson (concussion) and pitcher Nancy Sparrow, who complained of pains in her right shoulder and was taken out in the second inning in the nightcap against Cornell on Saturday...The Crimson hosts Stonehill in a doubleheader at Soldiers Field on Tuesday before going on the road for a pair at Assumption College on Wednesday.