Columbia
HARVARD*
Softball Drops Pair of One-Run Decisions to Harvard
4/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
In a day that was dominated by pitching, starters Jackie Adelfio and Shelly Madick held the opposition scoreless through the first four innings of game one.
Harvard broke through with a run in the top half of the fifth, but Columbia responded quickly with a run of its own in the bottom of the inning.
Kim Krisman started the fifth by beating out an infield single and just beat the throw to second on a grounder by Maiya Chard-Yaron, to put runners on first and second with nobody out.
After Lexie Costic laid down a sacrifice bunt, Keli Leong scored Krisman with a groundout to third to tie the score.
Harvard ultimately went ahead with one out in the seventh when Rachel Murray narrowly cleared the left field fence for her third home run of the season.
Columbia had a runner on second with two out in the bottom of the seventh, but could not score the tying run and dropped a hard-fought decision in the opener.
Harvard opened the second game with a run in the top of the first but could not push across any more runs the rest of the way. The Lions put runners on the corners with two outs in their half of the first, but Harvard got the third out on a sharp grounder to second.
Harvard starter Amanda Watkins retired 14 straight batters until Valerie Smith singled with one out in the seventh. Smith made it to second base with two outs, but Lacie Nelson was called out on a slow grounder to third that pulled Danielle Kerper off the first base bag, but it was ruled that Kerper landed on the base just ahead of the runner.
Despite being credited with the two tough-luck decisions, Adelfio allowed just seven hits over 14 innings of work against Harvard.
Columbia (18-17-1, 1-3 Ivy League) returns to action on Tuesday, April 11 when the Lions will take on Manhattan at Gaelic Park in Riverdale, N.Y. The doubleheader is slated to begin at 3 p.m.
