“We kind of realized that the worst thing we could do was lose, and we already did that,” Halula said.

PRINCETON 4, HARVARD 1

Although Harvard had plenty of opportunities to score, the team couldn’t string together the hits it needed to overcome the run deficit.

Freshman Morgan Groom and her Princeton counterpart, senior Alex Peyton, both pitched three shutout innings to open the game, but the Tigers put themselves on the board in the fourth with a small ball showing that included an error by Gusse, two bunts, and a single.

After pitching a three-up-three-down fourth, Peyton doubled to open the fifth and her pinch runner added Princeton’s third run of the game.

The Crimson opened the sixth with back-to-back doubles to plate its only run of the game, but despite loading the bases on a single by sophomore second baseman Katherine Lantz and a one-out walk by Gusse, Harvard could not come up with another hit.

“We were swinging early, we were on our front feet, were pulling our heads, all the things hitters do when they’re pressing and trying too hard,” Allard said.

After sophomore Gabrielle Ruiz allowed a fourth run in the top of the seventh, the Crimson had a number of chances in its half but again could not convert. With one out and runners on first and second, Olson hit a slow, playable roller to short, but the Tigers’ freshman first baseman Kayla Bose could not keep her foot on the bag.

With the bases loaded, Lantz scorched a liner up the middle, but Peyton knocked it down and threw her out at first to end the ballgame.

—Staff writer Hope Schwartz can be reached at hschwartz@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @hopeschwartz16.