Whitton was also the Crimson starting pitcher. As in her previous two starts, she managed to pitch herself into a difficult situation by walking a pair of batters, and then find a way to escape fairly unscathed. With the bases loaded and two outs, she got Northwestern's Jenn Shull to pop out to McKendry.

In the top of the third, Harvard finally got on the scoreboard, albeit in the most unlikely fashion. Senior Jessie Amberg led off the inning by sending a 2-2 pitch over the right field fence, her first career home run in what would be the last game of her college career.

In fact, it was her first home run since she led her fourth-grade team to an 18-6 victory with an eight-RBI performance back in 1989.

"It felt really good," Amberg said. "I definitely was surprised, though probably not as surprised as my parents or my teammates."

Whitton followed up Amberg's surprise with a round-tripper of her own, a towering fly ball over the left-center fence. It was Whitton's third home run of the year, and the second time Harvard had hit back-to-back home runs this season. McKendry and sophomore Sarah Koppel accomplished the feat in a 10-5 win over Penn in April.

Harvard would add two more runs in the inning to knock Northwestern starter Brie Brown out of the game. After Brown hit Godfree and forced Abeles to pop out, McKendry, Koppel and freshman Monica Montijo hit consecutive singles to put Harvard up 4-0. Springer walked to load the bases with one out, but Harvard was unable to get any more runs across.

Such missed opportunities haunted the Crimson throughout the day. In the next inning, Harvard once again loaded the bases with two outs. Montijo appeared to deliver with a single to right field, but in the near-sighted eyes of the umpires, the throw from the Wildcat right fielder beat Montijo's dive into first.

Although Whitton struggled in the bottom of the third and Northwestern managed to tie the game, 4-4, she put the Crimson back up 6-4 with a two-run double in the top of the fifth. Springer started the inning with a well-earned walked, and Thoke, who had relieved Whitton on the mound in the third, followed with a well-placed pop-bunt single. Amberg, the next hitter, fouled off five pitches before finally getting the ball in play. Northwestern booted the ball, and that set up Whitton's big hit.