When the season opens in Florida this week, classmates Brown and Moore will begin to focus on updating, shifting, and tweaking their repertoires. In a league as small as the Ancient Eight, pitchers’ styles become recognizable after two years.

“I think, especially for Jules and me, we have to redefine ourselves as pitchers, especially in our third year,” Brown said. “A lot of these teams have seen us. More so than just changing pitches physically, it’s changing the mental approach and changing the game plan.”

Even for Brown, this change is a critical one. She had led the Ivies two years in a row in strikeouts, and holds four single-season records for Harvard. She is already third all-time in strikeouts in Crimson history, a record she will likely break this spring.

But pitchers become easier to hit it they are not willing to make adjustments.

“People in the conference have seen [Brown] for two years—they know what to expect,” Allard said. “She has got to be able to reinvent herself in some cases. She’s capable of doing that; she’s up to the challenge.”

—Staff writer E. Benjamin Samuels can be reached at samuels@college.harvard.edu.