Before Harvard began to dominate at home, the squad completed a successful campaign on the road during spring break. In its first weekend of play, the team traveled south, nabbing two wins and suffering three losses in the South Florida tournament. The Crimson then went undefeated in five contests in the Northridge Classic and won four of five games played in San Diego, Calif.

“We faced really tough pitching in California, which definitely prepared us for the rest of the season, especially Ivies,” Lange says.

Yet the Harvard squad did not have the smoothest start to the regular season.

Once back on the East Coast, the Crimson split its first four-game series against Lehigh before falling to Bryant by nine runs. That would end up being the largest margin that the team would lose by and the most runs that an opposing squad would score against the Harvard defense.

In its opening weekend of Ivy League play, the Crimson split a doubleheader against Cornell, losing the second contest, 10-8.

But after the rough patch, Harvard began to find its groove and play with greater consistency.

In its remaining 18 conference matches, Harvard lost only twice more, both times to North Division rival Dartmouth. Its second loss to the Big Green was also its last contest of the regular season, after which it would come back to sweep Penn for the Ivy League title in Cambridge.

“This year, we had individual players improve, and then, as a team, we really worked on being consistent,” Allard says. “This team’s success despite its obstacles was just characteristic of how strong it is, how much depth we had, how people who weren’t starting all the time were still working hard in practice. We were truly 21 strong.”

—Staff writer Marlee Melendy can be reached at melendy@college.harvard.edu.