Leave it to Massachusetts to cool down the bats.

The Harvard softball team played its first home games yesterday after a California trip that saw the Crimson score an average of eight runs in its last three games.

But back home at chilly Soldiers Field, Harvard (6-10, 0-0 Ivy) could only muster a total of seven hits in a doubleheader against Rhode Island (8-12). Only because the Crimson faced a Rams pitcher that could not find the strike zone did Harvard win the first game, 6-3, but the home team's luck ran out in the nightcap as the Crimson was shut out, 7-0.

"I don't know what the answer is of why we're not hitting," co-captain Melissa Reyen said. "I just think that we're in a slump."

If Harvard hopes to win with any consistency, that slump has to end.

Harvard 6, URI 3

This game almost seemed like a battle of which pitcher would get rattled first.

After pitching uneventful first innings, Harvard sophomore Heather Brown and URI's Correna Berlinger saw trouble in the second. But while Brown pitched out of her bases-loaded, one-out jam, Berlinger didn't survive the inning.

The Rams led off the frame with a Kellie Cookus single and a sacrifice, and then Pam Asti hit a shot just over junior Melissa Kreuder's head, so close to being caught that Cookus had to hold at third.

Lisa Smith then hit a grounder that got Cookus caught in a rundown from which she later escaped, loading the bases.

But Brown got the next hitter to ground to senior shortstop Amy Reinhard, who forced Cookus out at home. A grounder to first ended the inning.

Harvard, meanwhile, did find a way to get runners across the plate. Walking across the plate, that is.

Two bases on balls and an error loaded the bases with two outs, and back-to-back walks to Reinhard and sophomore centerfielder Jenny Franzese scored a pair of runs.

Then Sue Foggo came in to pitch, and she didn't do too much better at first. A walk to Kreuder let in one more run, and a bases-clearing double by junior Katina Lee ended the scoring at six runs--on one big hit.

That, however, was all the scoring that Harvard did on the day. A single by freshman Karen Rice and a double by Reven were the only other Crimson hits for the remaining four innings of the game, but Brown made the lead hold.