The bats were silent for the Harvard softball team as undefeated Yale swept the Crimson 3-0, 2-0 in a twinbill last Saturday in New Haven, Conn. The Bulldog victory clinched the 1993 Ivy League Championship for Yale.

For Harvard (13-9 overall, 3-3 Ivy), the only race left is for second place.

"We're a better team than our record shows," junior Christine Vogt said. "We should be taking two from everyone we play--we've lost a lot of close games. Our goal is to get second place. We just need to beat our nemesis Princeton, the Ivy League winner for the past ten years, and-Brown, which is also a really though team."

A combination of stingy Bulldog pitching and solid defense shutdown the Crimson offense. Harvard's pitching, shared by senior Christine Carr and sophomore Elizabeth Walker, was also exceptional.

"Christine, Liz and sophomore Jana Meader deserve a lot of credit," Vogt said. "We've had 12 games in one week. That's a lot of work for three pitchers."

Walker affirmed the difficulty for the pitchers, calling the week "emotionally draining."

Luckily, the sunnier day of the weekend warmed up the Crimson bats as Harvard beat Fordham 7-6, 6-3 in New York Sunday.

The Crimson started out strong, scoring two runs in the first inning of the first game, but Fordham caught up quickly and led at the end of the sixth, 6-5. Harvard pulled out the win with two crucial runs in the top of the seventh.

The victory gave the Crimson momentum with which it finished its four-game weekend optimistically.

"[Freshmen] Danielle Feinberg played a really solid second game at Fordham at second base," freshman Kareen Savage said. "She had all the outs in one inning and then started the next inning with a single."

Senior Katie Fitta also hit a single, although she had a little more difficulty getting to the base.

After a hitting the ball up the right-hand line, Fitta found the first baseman directly, in her path. Fitta had the right-of-way, so she went over the Fordham player, leaving the first baseman in the dust. Literally.

Except for a little mud on the uniform and ego-damage, the Fordham player was fine.

Harvard hopes to take at least the next 11 out of 16 games (including today's game at Brown) to give it a second place Ivy finish and a better record than last year.

"We have a good chance of meeting our goals and I'm confident that we will," Walker said. "We definitely have the desire."