Last weekend, the softball team (5-19, 2-7 Ivy) lost both matchups in a two-game set against Harvard (14-9-1, 7-2 Ivy) in Cambridge. The series opened on Friday with a 3-1 Crimson victory and concluded with a doubleheader on Sunday. The Bears fell short in both games, losing 6-2 and 7-0, respectively.
“There are plenty of games left this season,” catcher Moe Kastens ’24 wrote in a message to The Herald via Brown Athletics. “The team tries to focus on staying together and remaining positive … A big focus for us this week will be to clean up our defense and keep at our hitting approach.
“Our pitchers have been doing a great job at trying to keep us in games, so as a defense we need to be able to help them out,” she wrote.
On Friday, the Bears opened the series hoping to secure their first victory in Cambridge since 2010. Brown fell behind early, allowing the Crimson to pull ahead 3-0 in the first inning. Bruno spent the rest of the game attempting to overcome this deficit. In an eight-hit effort by Brown, Meghan Gormley ’23, Lily Berlinger ’26 and Kastens spearheaded the offense — posting two hits each. In the fourth inning, the Bears scored for the first time: Propelled by a Gormley double, Kastens — starting from second — crossed the plate for Brown. But despite the brief offensive flurry, Bruno lost the game 3-1.
“Harvard did a good job capitalizing on mistakes and continuously pressuring our defense,” wrote catcher and third baseman Laurel Moody ’25 in a message to The Herald. “They played a clean game defensively … they had good at-bats and put the ball in play.”
On Sunday, the Bears struggled defensively in the early stretches of the first game, with the Crimson taking a 4-0 lead by the second inning. But in the face of this deficit, Bruno’s offense took off.
In the top of the fourth, Moody hit a double down the left field line. After a sacrifice fly by Dara English ’24, Moody crossed home plate, bringing the score to 4-1 in Harvard’s favor.
In the top of the sixth, Kastens doubled to left-center. After stealing third, pinch runner Liv Kam ’26 scored on a Gormley single. Bruno’s offensive attack ended there, and after scoring twice more in the bottom of the inning, Harvard took the contest 6-2.
“Harvard has a very dynamic lineup with a handful of speedy athletes,” wrote Head Coach Kate Wheeler in a message to The Herald via Brown Athletics. “They were able to create some chaos for us on defense and always found a way to get the timely hit.”
“We weren’t as clean on defense as we have been most of the year,” Wheeler wrote. “A team like Harvard will make you pay for every mistake.”
Brown has recorded 30 errors over 24 games.
In the final game of the series, Brown was again unable to match Harvard. In an offensive drought, the Bears stayed off the scoreboard completely, ultimately falling 7-0 to the Crimson. For the third game in a row, Brown yielded runs to Harvard in the first inning, conceding a 4-0 early lead. In the second inning, first baseman and catcher Julia Gubner ’23 recorded one of Brown’s only two hits in the game — the second a single by English in the seventh inning. But the Bears were unable to capitalize on either offensive opportunity.
Despite this setback, Kastens noted that the Bears remain focused on their goal of reaching the Ivy League tournament.
“We will continue to focus on doing the little things in order to make it there. We'll keep hitting the ball hard and focus on cleaning up our defense,” she wrote. “While the physicality of the game is important, we still want to be able to anchor ourselves by having fun and making memories with our teammates.”
“So far this season we’ve played the top teams in the Ivy League,” Moody wrote. “With the tough start, I believe that we can make a statement as a team and a program in our last four series … we tend to be overlooked and I think this will be our biggest motivation to finish strong this season.”
Lydell Dyer is a Senior Staff Writer for the sports section. A sophomore hailing from Bonn, Germany, Lydell is studying nonfiction English and political science, and if he's not off "making words sound pretty," you can find him lifting heavy circles at the Nelson.
