“The last week after Cornell and Holy Cross, Rachel had a lot of things to work out,” Roberts said. “She did a great job of making those adjustments and coming up strong.”

“She got ahead of almost every batter she faced in her no-hitter against Columbia, which is really key for her to be able to put the batters away,” Roberts added. “Her rise ball was really on, and neither Penn nor Columbia’s batters could even come close to it…It was the best I’ve seen from her in a long time.”

Though the no-hitter was the crown jewel of Brown’s weekend, she finished the four-game Ivy set with two wins, a save, and 14 innings of scoreless softball—allowing just six hits and striking out a combined 26.

“It definitely gives me confidence,” Brown said. “This performance helps me with my mental game, and I feel really confident after these games.”

The sophomore’s mettle is evident in her statistics, as her 1.67 ERA and 131 strikeouts are good for tops in the Ancient Eight.

But the stat most telling about Brown’s importance to the Crimson squad is maybe the least glamorous. Her 9-4 record and two saves mean that the hurler has played a leading role in 11 of Harvard’s 14 wins this season.

“She’s so consistent—you know that you’re going to get a solid start out of her every time,” Roberts said. “It lets the defense and the offense have a no-pressure approach and have fun out there, and I think that’s reflected in the way the bats perform behind her.”

Brown’s already cemented her place in Harvard softball history. But as the sophomore proved this weekend, the best may be yet to come.

“She’s definitely her own harshest critic, but in a way that really makes her strive for excellence,” Roberts said. “She’s never satisfied with her own performance—she’s always looking for ways to get better…I can’t wait to see how she performs in the last [three] weekends of Ivy play.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.