The momentum continued into the fifth with Rich hitting a solo homer, her second home run of the season, to close the gap to one. Classmate Meagan Lantz then launched the ball over the centerfield wall for a two-run homer to put Harvard in the lead 5-4.

Cabe and the Crimson defense let up only one hit for the last two innings to lock up the win and sweep the day.

YALE 1, HARVARD 0

Harvard dropped its first and only game of the series to Yale despite a solid performance by Groom on the mound, as the Crimson ultimately wasted several scoring opportunities

Groom and the Crimson defense gave up no hits for the first five innings, but the Bulldogs were able to break through in the sixth with two hits and a run scored. Yale’s Allison Skinner doubled to right center with two outs to drive the winning run home. Harvard was unable to answer back, leaving one runner on base to end the game.

Harvard out-hit their opponents 6-2, but several unsuccessful offensive risks and a total of five runners, including two in scoring position in the sixth, left on the bases stopped them from putting anything on the board.

“Sometimes what our team needs is a reset and we went into that first game and we fought and Yale prevailed,” Leslie said.

HARVARD 6, YALE 0

The Crimson rebounded fast from the close loss earlier in the day to score all six runs of the game in their first at bat and to tallie 14 total hits across the seven innings. Three Harvard pitchers combined to let up only one hit.

“I think that losing that game lit a fire under everyone,” Groom said. “Our offense absolutely wanted to prove that they had something in them and they really came in lights out that first inning of the second game.”

Freshman Kathleen Duncan pitched the first win of her collegiate career and classmates Nicki Nishizawa and Sarah Smith relieved her in the seventh.

—Staff writer Ginny Miller can be reached at virginiamiller@college.harvard.edu