Cambridge, Mass. - The Harvard softball team (6-4) will travel to California to play six games from Friday, March 10 to Tuesday, March 14 including five contests at the Lance Up Invite hosted by California Baptist University. The team will face off against Syracuse, California Baptist and UC San Diego in Riverside, Calif. at the Lance Up Invite from Friday, March 10 to Sunday, March 12. The team will head to San Diego for their final game before conference play to face University of San Diego in a doubleheader on Tuesday, March 14. 
 
Harvard will start the weekend with games against Syracuse and CBU at 3 and 8 p.m. EST on Friday, followed by games at 1 and 3:30 p.m. against UC San Diego and Syracuse on Saturday and a final game against CBU on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. to wrap up the Lance Up Invite. Tuesday's doubleheader will begin at 3 p.m. against San Diego. Games against the host school CBU will be streamed on ESPN+. 

What to Know

• Harvard started the 2023 campaign 6-4 on the road with two weekends of tournaments in a row with the Winthrop Garnet and Gold tournament and Gardner-Webb Red and Black Tournament. 
• At the Red and Black tournament, Harvard had three wins and two losses. Two of these wins were shutouts with a score of 10-0 over Detroit Mercy and 11-0 over Sacred Heart. The Crimson won their second game against Chattanooga 5-2.
• Senior Allison Heffley was named Ivy League Player of the Week for the second week in a row, as she is currently the only player in the Ivy League to garner Player of the Week honors so far this season. First-year Riley Flynn was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week to make this the second week in a row Harvard had two of the three weekly awards. 
• At the Red and Black Softball tournament she led the Crimson offensively, with seven hits resulting in three doubles, a triple and four RBI. Heffley herself crossed home plate for three runs. In the team's two shutout wins, she went 2-for-4 with two doubles over Detroit Mercy and 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI over Sacred Heart.
• Flynn started two of the weekend's five games for the Crimson, pitching 15 total innings and picking up one win. Against Chattanooga, Flynn made an impact in the circle for the Crimson, throwing two shutout innings while allowing no hits, with no walks and two strikeouts. In Sunday's win over Sacred Heart, she hurled a two-hit shutout to lead the Harvard Crimson over the Sacred Heart Pioneers 11-0. Flynn (2-0) went the distance for Harvard, giving up two hits, walking four and striking out nine.
• Throughout the five games over the course of last weekend, Harvard scored 31 runs while only giving up 12 to opponents. 
• Harvard softball landed at no. 2 in the Ivy League preseason poll. The Crimson, which earned three first-place considerations, tallied 110 points total, finishing just behind reigning Ivy League Champion Princeton (13 votes, 125 points.) 
• The Ivy League runner-ups from the 2022 campaign return nearly all of its offensive production and pitching staff. Harvard is slated to return 90.2 percent of its stolen base total from last season, 86.5 percent of its doubles, 85.8 percent of its runs, 84.7 percent of its hits, 80.7 percent of its RBI and 75 percent of its home runs. In the circle, the Crimson returns its top five pitchers from '22 based on ERA and also welcomes back 274 of 276 of its innings pitched (99.3 percent), 140 of 141 of its strikeouts (99.3 percent) and 100 percent of its victories (22 of 22).
• Harvard trails San Diego 2-5 but won the last matchup in 2016 with a score of 4-1. 
• The Crimson are trailing UC San Diego 2-8 in the all time series, splitting games in 2017, the last time the two teams met. 
• Harvard is looking for their first win over Syracuse as they trail 0-2 from a two-game weekend in 2013.
• Harvard will meet California Baptist University for the first time at the Lance Up Invite. 

Up Next

Harvard will start Ivy League play as they travel to Penn for a doubleheader on Saturday, March 18 followed by a single game on Sunday, March 19.