Boston College
Harvard
Harvard Wins Wild 12-9 Softball Game
April 26, 2007 | Softball
April 26, 2007
Chestnut Hill, Mass - The Boston College softball team fell 12-9 to Harvard this afternoon in a wild, back-and-forth affair at Shea Field.
The Eagles sent sophomore Savana Lloyd to the circle as today's starting pitcher, while Harvard countered with Amanda Watkins.
Lloyd walked the leadoff batter in the first, who was then sacrificed over to second. Harvard's third hitter, freshman Lauren Murphy, took Lloyd deep over the left field wall, giving Harvard the early 2-0 lead and setting a single-season school record (14) in the process.
The Eagles struck back in the bottom of the first. Junior Amanda Booth reached on an infield single. Senior Jenna Macchi followed with a nice opposite-field single, moving Booth up to third. With senior Britney Thompson batting, a passed ball by Harvard catcher Hayley Bock allowed Booth to come home. Thompson drew a walk, and the Eagles again had runners at the corners. Renee Ramos, the team's hottest bat of late, crushed a Watkins offering off the wall in left-center bringing Macchi home and tying the game at two. After a walk to freshman Blair Destito loaded the bases, Harvard coach Jenny Allard pulled Watkins in favor of Margaux Black. Black retired the next two batters to end the Eagles rally.
After Lloyd got through the second inning, the Eagles bats went back to work. Senior Ashley Obrest got things started with a one-out single to center. Booth then sent a sharp single to left field that was misplayed by the Harvard defender, allowing Obrest to come around and score. Macchi followed with single to center that scored Booth. Ramos was next, and she stroked a mammoth homerun over the center field fence, putting the Eagles up 6-2.
In the top of the third, Harvard's freshman slugger struck again. With one out, Murphy crushed a two-run Lloyd offering over the fence to draw the Crimson to within 6-4. BC coach Jen Finley decided to pull Lloyd at this point, and brought in sophomore Amanda Klimczak. Klimczak allowed two singles but struck out two to get out of harm's way.
Harvard scored a run with two outs in the fourth on a fielding error by BC third baseman Taylor Peyton, which brought Murphy back to the plate. Surprisingly, the Eagles pitched to her. They paid the price, as Murphy socked her third homer of the game, a moonshot to left-center field.
The Eagles trailed 7-6 in the bottom of the fourth, but Macchi made up that difference with a one-out solo shot to center, her eighth of the year. Thompson drew a walk and Ramos was hit by a pitch to continue the Eagles rally. Destito moved the runners up with a groundout. The next batter, freshman Dani Weir, singled up the middle, plating both runners and putting the Eagles ahead 9-7 after four full innings.
In the top of the sixth, Harvard's Lauren Brown lined a homerun over the left field wall to pull Harvard to within 9-8 and also give Murphy a two-out opportunity to tie the game. Peyton had come on for Klimczak at the start of the inning, and decided to pitch to Murphy. Murphy hit her hardest ball of the day, but it was a lined single to left field, her fourth hit in four plate appearances. Peyton struck out the next batter to preserve the one-run advantage.
In the top of the seventh, Finley went to staff ace Thompson to close out the game in the circle. Unfortunately, things did not go the Eagles way as Harvard came from behind with four runs on five hits in the inning. The backbreaker came when Murphy lined a two-run single down the left-field line to extend the Crimson lead to 12-9.
The Eagles went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh as Harvard snuck away come-from-behind winners.
Thompson took the loss to fall to 5-12. Harvard's Shelly Madick took the win to improve to 13-3.
Murphy finished 5-5 with three homeruns and 8 RBIs.
In defeat, Macchi led the way with three hits and two RBIs, while Thompson, Booth, and Ramos had two hits apiece.
The Eagles play again this weekend on the road for a three-game series at Virginia Tech.
--BC--
