Sophomore Whitney Shaw, shown here in earlier action, hammered her team-leading 10th home run of the season, but the slugger’s efforts weren’t enough to prevent the Crimson from dropping its final non-conference contest of the regular season, 4-1, to BU yesterday at Soldiers Field.

In a blustery battle of cross-town rivals, the Harvard softball team (22-21, 13-3 Ivy) fell to Boston University (27-18, 10-2 America East) yesterday, 4-1, at Soldiers Field in the Crimson’s final non-conference matchup of the regular season.

The Terriers came out strong against Harvard, scoring all four of their runs in first three innings.

The Crimson experienced a game-long scoring drought, which, though interrupted briefly by a homer from sophomore first baseman Whitney Shaw in the fourth inning, made it impossible for Harvard to recover from the early deficit.

“Their pitchers really silenced our bats,” Crimson coach Jenny Allard said. “We didn’t start battling at the plate until the fourth inning, and we gave some at-bats away.”

In the fourth inning, an impressive at-bat by co-captain Melissa Schellberg, who is also a Crimson editor, helped the team gain momentum.

After Schellberg was tagged out at first on a nice play by the Terriers’ shortstop, Shaw slammed one over the fence for the only score on the day.

Freshman Jess Ferri singled to get on base immediately following Shaw’s home run. Senior outfielder Jen Francis hit a double, putting runners on second and third for the Crimson, but Harvard was unable to capitalize further.

“We really started to come together and battle harder [in the fourth],” Allard said. “We need to do that from the first inning.”

Unfortunately for the Crimson, the scoring did not continue, as Shaw’s home run was the last run scored by either team in the seven-inning matchup.

Harvard had few scoring chances in the last portion of the game, as BU’s pitching staff held the Crimson to no hits and only 10 batters in the last three innings.

Despite the loss, pitching was a strong point for Harvard.

Sophomore pitcher Julia Moore got the Crimson off to a good start, allowing no hits in the first inning.

Co-captain Margaux Black entered the game for Harvard in the fourth inning and shut down the Terrier offense, allowing just two hits and no runs in the remainder of the game.

“I’m a ground-ball pitcher, and they hit a lot of ground balls today,” Black said. “I had our defense backing me up…[It would be nice] to see a little more offense, but I think our defense played great.”

The Terriers scored their first run in the second inning, as sophomore shortstop Emily Roesch crossed home plate on a single from freshman pitcher Whitney Tuthill.