The Spring Fling hype wasn’t enough to give the Red and Blue a win over the Crimson last week, as Penn’s softball fell in a 3-game series to Harvard.
After coming off an encouraging tie, Penn (2-26-1, 0-12 Ivy) lost the first two games in a Friday doubleheader. The games were low-scoring for the Quakers and Crimson (16-8, 5-4 Ivy), with the losses only being 3-1 and 4-1, respectively. An 11-1 loss in the third game of the series — on Saturday — represented the culmination of an unsatisfactory weekend.
“Having seen all of [the Harvard players] really plays into it — I would just argue we're probably a little bit tired today,” Penn softball head coach Christie Novatin said after Saturday’s game.
Penn kept the Crimson from tallying up runs in the doubleheader that kicked off the weekend, keeping its fight up through all seven innings of both games. However, the Saturday game was cut short due to the mercy rule, which allows the game to end prematurely if one team is up by at least 8 runs by the 5th inning, as Harvard was ahead by ten runs after six innings.
The Quakers’ weekend was plagued by rain delays. The doubleheader — originally set for Saturday — was moved up to Friday, and the final game to Saturday, due to “inclement weather,” according to Penn Athletics. In the third game, a brief rain delay sent all the players inside in the second inning.
“I just think that quick turnaround probably didn’t play in our favor,” Coach Novatin said on moving the games up.
Game three was met with even more distractions. As the line for Penn’s Spring Fling festival wrapped around Penn Park, attendees turned into spectators. However, the Quakers were quick to dispel ideas that the loss was due to external forces.
“I don't really like to make excuses,” Coach Novatin said. “I just don't think we gave our best.”
Even with the weather trouble and fatigue, she said, “I felt like the last three games have actually been some of our best games as of late, which means we were trending the right way.”
“The record doesn't reflect it,” she went on, “But [there’s a] hell of a lot of fight in these kids.”
The Quakers showed their “fight” throughout the series, making crucial plays such as flying out Harvard star sophomore infielder Sophie Sun in the second inning — killing the momentum the Crimson had after 3 straight runs. They showed this “fight” in their tie-game against Villanova last Wednesday when freshman catcher Alexis Youngren hit her first collegiate home run, which also happened to be a grand slam.
“It's really hard to get up knowing where we're at in our season and continue to give people your best,” Coach Novatin said. But the Red and Blue have stuck with it, and the results are starting to show. After their 20-game losing streak near the start of this season, the team has fought for a win and a tie in their last 8 games.
“There's a maturity that this game forces on you,” Coach Novatin said, “just because it's a lot of failure.” But it’s when the team meets failure that “maturity comes in, knowing that it's gonna go back your way.”
With a large graduating class last year, the freshmen on the team have had to stand up and take on a larger role. But experience and maturity take time, and the Quakers are not pushing themselves to win quickly. Even as they try to build momentum and keep it in every game, Coach Novatin said, “the momentum piece is actually not just like in the moment, but it's also long term of, hey … I think everybody's beatable.”
As the freshmen take the lessons from each loss and build on the positives of their game, Coach Novatin said that seniors on the team take it upon themselves to lead them and build up a softball team that will only grow in confidence.
“We've got some leaders, you know, that are trying to help the young ones stay focused on those things, so time will tell.”
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