The Crimson scored twice in the top of the first—on a sacrifice fly from junior Whitney Shaw and a RBI-groundout from freshman Kasey Lange—to jump to the early lead. Brown was perfect through four and two-thirds, keeping the game out of reach.

“I think we have quite a few players who are in a really good spot right now,” Brown said. “I think overall, our team is really great offensively this year.”

Lange and Shaw each picked up another RBI later in the game, and other than a brief fifth-inning two-out rally, North Dakota mustered little offense on the afternoon.

HARVARD 2, ST. LOUIS 1

After St. Louis scored the tying run in the seventh to even the game at one, sophomore Ashley Heritage hit a walk-off single in the eighth to give Harvard the extra-inning victory.

Brown worked an inning in relief to pick up the win, but freshman Laura Ricciardone threw seven strong innings. She was denied the complete-game shutout with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

“Laura Ricciardone had a great game on Saturday,” Allard said. “She pitched stellar. She held them until the end of the game, when they strung some hits together…I think that was the best we’ve seen her pitch in the two weekends.”

Kelcie Matesa pitched a complete game for the Billikens but picked up the loss.

HARVARD 7, UC RIVERSIDE 4

Despite Brown’s shakiest performance of the weekend—the pitcher six walks and two earned runs in six innings—the Crimson gave her more than enough offensive support to win the tournament’s first game on Friday.

Harvard scored three runs in the first and took a 7-0 lead going into the bottom of the sixth. UC Riverside managed two runs in each of the last two innings, but the Crimson still easily held onto the win.

Junior Mary Zumbro went 1-for-3 with two RBIs, and Heritage hit 3-for-4 and scored twice.

“We were coming out strong early in the games,” Allard said. “We were being very aggressive and getting key hits and trying to score runs in the first couple of innings.”