And McAteer, who has been bothered by tendinitis and rotator cuff woes in her shoulder all year, finished the game in the same convincing fashion that she began it—with a brisk 1-2-3 inning, retiring all three hitters on ground balls.
“I haven’t pitched that long all year really,” McAteer said. “But it was a pretty quick game, with short innings, and I felt good.”
DARTMOUTH 9, HARVARD 2
A couple of bases-loaded hits by the Big Green doomed Harvard and the offense it displayed against Columbia the day before was notably absent in game one as it suffered a sound 9-2 defeat.
The loss hammered home the team’s disappointment at falling out of the Ivy race down the stretch.
“It’s hard not to come in first,” McAteer said. “Because that was what we were hoping for [and] expecting.”
Freshman Shelly Madick closed out a promising rookie campaign with a disappointing start, as she was touched up for five runs and seven hits in three innings of work. Dartmouth centerfielder Kalie Jackson smacked a two-out, bases-loaded triple in the bottom of the third to cap a four-run inning to plunge the Crimson into a 5-0 hole.
Reliever Becky Voaklander fared no better, surrendering a grand slam to Kelly Fry in the sixth.
“The weather was really bad,” McAteer said. “And they were hitting the ball.”
Meanwhile, the Harvard bats were silenced by Big Green freshman Angela Megaw, who held the Crimson to six hits. Despite drawing five walks, Harvard only capitalized once, courtesy of three of its seniors.
Beth Sabin drove in Stefanchik and Lauren Bettinelli with a one-out double in the fifth. Stefanchik, the only player in the lineup to post a multi-hit game, was 2-for-4 but was caught stealing earlier in the game for the first time all year, leaving her an impressive 16-for-17 in stolen base attempts for the season.
The bruising loss, however, did not discourage a Harvard team used to its share of bitterness and misfortune.
“We wanted to come out and finish strong no matter what’s at stake,” Bettinelli said. “And you want to bounce back after losses and finish out the whole season. Every time we’ve lost a game where a lot of teams would back down or get down, we’ve always just looked forward and been really positive.”
—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.