Harvard 4, Yale 3
It wasn't vintage Harvard softball, but it was just as effective. Despite falling behind early, Harvard kept its focus and pulled out a 4-3 victory, high-fiving each other and bumping chests in the postgame celebration.
On the other hand, the only visible emotion on the visitors' side came from one ornery father who tried to change the scoring of a play from an error to a hit. He fared about as well as his team did.
The Crimson erased an early 2-0 deficit, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the fifth with a combination of clutch hitting and speed on the bases.
Franzese (2-3, two runs) led off the fifth and was sacrificed to second by Feinberg. Reinhard (2-2, one run, two RBIs) promptly singled up the middl, and Franzese easily beat the throw home. A slower runner may not have made it.
"If we get runners on base, we're going to score," Allard said.
Yale pushed a run across the plate against freshman pitcher Kathleen Brown in each of the first two innings. The first was aided by two Harvard errors, while a two-out walk and a double by Cory Nakata led to the second.
However, Harvard bounced back in the third inning to take a 3-2 lead. Franzese again started the rally with a one-out double. She moved to third on Feinberg's ground out and Reinhard singled her home to put the Crimson on the scoreboard.
Reinhard--Harvard's career stolen base leader--stole second and scored on Kreuder's single. Junior Katina Lee followed with a single to move Kreuder to third and the two pulled off a double steal to give Harvard the edge.
While the Elis tied the game in the fourth, Cupp came in to relieve Brown at the start of the fifth and pitched three perfect innings. That, combined with the blue-collar run that Harvard scored in the fifth, was all she wrote for Yale once again.
"Their nerves didn't get rattled and their heads didn't go down," Allard said. "They kept fighting and fighting because they kept believing in themselves."
Weather permitting, Harvard will have a chance to keep its three-game winning streak going with a double-header at home against Boston University today at 3 p.m.
Following that is a doubleheader at Boston College on Thursday and a twinbill at perennial Ivy powerhouse Princeton Sunday.
"We came out confident, made the routine plays and the excellent plays," Kreuder said. "If we come out the way we did [yesterday], then we can give [anyone] a good game." 2B: Harvard--Franzese, Kreuder, Read. E: Yale--Bartlett 2. WP: Cupp; LP: Surface. 2B: Yale--Nakata; Harvard--Reyen, Franzese. E: Yale--Kirchoff; Harvard--Lee, Reinhard, Kreuder. WP: Cupp; LP: Kartunato.