Harvard nips Softball in weekend's one dry game

April showers might bring May flowers. But they also wreak havoc on the schedule of the Penn softball team. Originally scheduled to play consecutive doubleheaders against Harvard and Dartmouth on Friday and Saturday, Mother Nature only allowed the Quakers to get in one game -- a 10-5 defeat at the hands of the Crimson in the opening game of Friday's doubleheader. Game two against Harvard was then rescheduled and postponed two more times due to the rainy weather and wet fields. The doubleheader against Dartmouth has also been postponed. "We were all waiting for the fields to dry, but it never happened," sophomore third baseman Jen Moore said. "It was a pain, but we can't help the weather." Penn will now play Harvard at Yale next Saturday before squaring off against Dartmouth next Sunday to round out its Ivy League schedule. The one game that the Quakers were able to squeeze in against the weather was a well-played contest, but in the end, the Crimson proved to be too strong. Harvard (12-17 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning when right fielder Sarah Koppel laced a two-run triple just inside the right field line before being driven home by starting pitcher Chelsea Thoke. But the Quakers fought right back, showing some of the come-from-behind ability that they displayed in their victories over Princeton and Cornell last weekend. Penn (13-25-1, 2-7) got on the board in the second with a sacrifice fly from sophomore second baseman Jamie Pallas to cut the lead to 3-1. The Red and Blue then exploded in the fourth inning, scoring four runs to take a 5-3 lead. The rally got started with two outs in the inning. The Quakers loaded the bases after two walks and a single before sophomore left fielder Clarisa Apostol drove home Pallas. Freshman shortstop Crista Farrell then smacked a base-clearing double to deep left, but she was thrown out trying to extend it into a triple to end the rally and the inning. "It was a considerable blast," Penn coach Carol Kashow said bluntly. The fourth-inning barrage sent Thoke to the showers, for, despite being last season's Ivy League pitcher of the year, she could not contain the Quakers offense. "We scored five runs against one of the better pitchers in the Ivies, and we knocked out two quality pitchers against Princeton and Cornell [last weekend]," Kashow said. "It shows that our offense is getting better and continuing to develop." The Red and Blue, however, could not hold their lead against the Crimson, who hold a first-place lead in Ivy play this season. Harvard scored one run apiece in the fourth and fifth innings to tie the game before erupting in the sixth, taking a commanding lead that they would never relinquish. After an RBI single from shortstop Cherry Fu, the Crimson hit back-to-back homers off Penn freshman pitcher Becky Ranta. Catcher Mairead McKendry hit a three-run blast for her seventh home run of the season before Koppel went yard to cap off the rally and give Harvard the 10-5 victory. "They just killed the ball in the sixth inning -- they just got a hold of the ball," Moore said. "That happens sometimes." Ranta gave up nine runs in 5 1/3 innings to take the loss and drop to 9-10 on the season, but Kashow was considerably happy with the freshman's performance. "It was a good job by Becky to keep her composure with adverse conditions," Kashow said. "We had a freshman on the mound against the No. 1 team in the Ivies -- it speaks well to her credit." Kashow was also pleased with Penn's comeback. Even though they could not pick up the win, it marked the third-straight series in which the Quakers came from behind against top Ivy League competitors. "It was a come-from-behind situation for us," Kashow said. "It shows that we can, in fact, come from behind against the tough teams in the conference." "The score was in no way indicative of how close the game really was," Kashow said. Penn will look to avenge its loss when it plays the Crimson next Saturday in a rescheduled game. They just better hope that the Heavens permit it.

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