Late Rally Comes Up Short In First Game

Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

Photo Gallery

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale softball team fought to the bitter end in both games Tuesday against first-place Harvard. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, both late rallies came up short. Yale nearly erased a six-run deficit in the seventh inning of the first game but fell 6-4. In the second game, the Bulldogs got two runners on base for the only time in the game in their final at bat but couldn't score in a 5-0 loss.

Harvard pitcher Rachel Brown was again outstanding. She started both games in the circle, tossing a total of 10.1 innings, while striking out 19 and allowing only three hits. The two victories improved her record on the season to 14-5.

Liz Tutino singled and doubled in the first game and Allie Canulli had a hit in each game for the Bulldogs (9-26, 4-12 Ivy).

The big hit of the first game was Jennifer Francis's grand slam that capped a six-run third inning for the Crimson (22-20, 13-3 Ivy).

Brown sailed through the first four innings but was replaced in the fifth by Mari Zumbro. Yale loaded the bases in the fifth after a double by Tutino, a single by Lexi Peacock and a walk to Ashley Sloan, but Zumbro got out of the jam.

The Bulldogs broke through in the seventh. Sloan and Canulli knocked in runs, Katie Yanagisawa scored on a wild pitch and Sloan scored on an error. With the tying runs on base and two out, Brown was summoned back into the circle, and she recorded her eighth strikeout to end the game.

In the second game, Ellen Macadam hit a two-run homer in the third to give the Crimson an early lead. Harvard added three runs in the sixth. The big hit was Francis's two-run double.

Brown went the first six innings. Yale's best chance to score against her came in the fifth. Meg Johnson led off and reached third on an error, but Brown struck out the next three hitters.

The Bulldogs also threatened in the seventh. Christy Nelson doubled and Chelsey Locarno walked, but the game ended when Kelsey Warkentine's sharply hit ground ball hit Locarno, who was on her way to second.

Yale got some excellent defense in the two games. Rightfielder Virginia Waldrop made a sliding catch in the fifth inning of the first game. In second game, Locarno ventured into foul territory in left field to make a running catch, and Chelsea Janes did the same in right field.

The Bulldogs close out the season with a four-game series against Brown. The teams play a doubleheader in Providence on Friday at 2 p.m. and then will meet for two in New Haven on Saturday beginning at 12:30 p.m.

Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity