FREMONT, Calif.--One gets the feeling that things are falling into place.

In its spring break trip, the Harvard softball team has done exactly what it needed to. Though it had been playing inconsistently, it began the week with potential. It flew home with three straight victories and good reason to believe that it is ready for the Ivy League season.

Starting in the Sacramento State Tournament, Harvard won one game out of five in its first time playing outdoor this season. After the Gaels of St. Mary's swept the Crimson in a doubleheader, Harvard went to the Pioneer Classic in Fremont, in which the Crimson (now 5-9, 0-0 Ivy) took the Consolation Championship.

"It's been a good trip," Harvard coach Jenny Allard said. "We're facing tough competition, and it's a step up."

Play began with games against Nebraska and Cal Poly-San Luis Obisbo, teams that are both ranked in the Top 25. The Crimson lost both, 8-0 and 4-2, respectively.

The games were especially difficult for Harvard given that it was the team's first contests of the season.

"We kind of went out there a step behind everyone else," sophomore centerfielder Jenny Franzese said. "I think that we did very well considering where we were coming from."

Then Harvard won its first game of the season, knocking off then-No. 24 Pacific by a 4-2 score.

"It was really great," sophomore pitcher Heather Brown said. "They were definitely the toughest team we played on the trip and we beat them decisively."

That would be Harvard's last win for a few days. In the double-elimination portion of the tournament--the first three games were round-robin--Harvard lost to Toledo, 2-1, and Bowling Green, 5-3.

Then it was off to the Bay Area and the doubleheader against St. Mary's, which the galloping Gaels won, 4-3 and 8-0.

For those counting, that's a 1-6 record. But the win-loss numbers are deceptive. Four of the six losses came against good Californian teams--usually considered the best in the nation.

"We started our season off with a real tough schedule," senior short-stop Amy Reinhard said. "It's hard to get confidence with a losing record."

Harvard didn't get that confidence until it went to the Pioneer Classic in Fremont. Again, the Crimson faced off against good teams. But, these were of the Division II variety--and this time, Harvard put together some wins.

The tournament featured 18 teams and started with round-robin play in four leagues. In a field loaded with teams from the Golden State, the Crimson was put in the East. In the round-robin, Harvard went 1-2, losing to Bakersfield, 3-0, and California-Davis, 5-0, but manhandling New York Tech, 17-1.

In the two losses, good pitching couldn't offset non-existent hitting and defensive troubles. Bakersfield scored two runs in the fourth thanks to a pair of errors, while all of UC-Davis' runs came from a two-out rally in the fourth, negating a strong outing by sophomore pitcher Tasha Cupp.

Against NYT, however, it all came together for the Crimson for the first time since the Pacific game. Reinhard started things off with a three-run homer down the left-field line in the first inning, and Franzese added a grand slam and a two-run triple in back-to-back innings to ice the win.

And in a sign that things were going right, freshman pitcher Kathleen Brown caught a line drive with her hip. Well, sort of--the ball fortuitously lodged itself between her side and her throwing hand before she could react.

The results of these three games pitted Harvard against Chapman in the first round of the winner's bracket as the third seed in the East, and Chapman won, 3-0, moving the Crimson to the consolation tournament. Harvard did not lose again.

Actually, the Crimson didn't even give up a run again. The first sacrificial lamb was George Fox, a school in Oregon that Harvard beat 5-0. Then it was Chico State, 11-0, and in the consolation finals Harvard defeated Cal-State San Bernardino, 8-0, punctuated by a homer from junior third baseman Katina Lee that invoked the eight-run "mercy rule."

So by the end, the Crimson was destroying some pretty decent teams.

"Towards the end of the week we just did it," Franzese said. "It felt good to win, and we established an attitude of aggressiveness that we had been trying to get all along."

Notes

Harvard next faces off against Rhode Island in a doubleheader this afternoon at Ohiri Field at 3 p.m., its first home games of the season...Reinhard was named first-team All-Tournament at the Pioneer Classic, while junior Melissa Kreuder got the same award for the Sacramento State Tournament.