When the pitch came, Whitton took advantage, lofting the ball into the pines that line the right-field fence.

“I tried to wait on it, and it just worked out that I connected, so it was nice,” Whitton said.

Before Whitton’s home run, Merchant had limited Harvard to just three baserunners.

“Their pitcher threw a lot of off-speed stuff which caught us off-balance. We just hung in there until we put a run across,” Harvard Coach Jenny Allard said. “Tiffany came up with a very clutch hit.”

Guy allowed seven Maine batters to reach in the game, but she and the error-free Harvard defense didn’t let any of them cross the plate.

Sophomore Kara Brotemarkle was as dominant as Guy in game two, giving up just two hits in four innings.

Brotemarkle had the luxury of pitching with a lead. The Crimson scored two in the first as Stefanchik walked and stole second to lead off, and Whitton doubled her home. Sophomore infielder Sara Williamson then drove Whitton in with a single.

Freshman Cecily Gordon doubled home sophomore Breanne Cooley to up the score to 3-0, and Whitton’s grand slam in the fourth all but iced the game.

With the seven-run lead, freshman pitcher Lauren Tanner entered the game for Harvard. Maine’s Nicole Taylor rudely greeted her with a home run. Tanner gave up two more runs before closing out the game.

Tanner, the all-time winningest pitcher in Texas high school history, has been going through the typical adjustment to the additional three feet of distance to home plate in the college game. A rout like Saturday’s gave her another opportunity to figure herself out.

“She needs experience—that’s all,” Allard said.

Stefanchik led Harvard with three stolen bases in the second game. She has 10 stolen bases in 11 attempts already this year. As a team, the Crimson has 29 steals in 33 attempts. In all of last year, Harvard stole just 15 bases on 26 tries.

No Love in Philadelphia

Harvard suffered its two most frustrating losses of the season against Villanova (14-2) on Mar. 27 before bouncing back with two wins against hapless Lafayette (1-8) the next day.

The Crimson was just one strike away from pulling off its most impressive win of the season in its first game against Villanova, but fell 5-3.