Softball Bows Out of NCAA Regionals

NORMAN, Okla.--The Harvard softball team watched its season come to a slightly premature conclusion Friday against Northwestern on the second day of the NCAA Regionals.

With leads of 4-0 in the third inning and 6-4 in the fifth, the Crimson (19-21, 11-1 Ivy) appeared to be destined for a third day of regional play, but an ugly combination of questionable officiating, runners left on base and defensive lapses down the stretch proved to be the team's undoing in a 9-6 loss to the Wildcats (29-25).

"It was a great game," said Harvard coach Jenny Allard. "Both teams battled hard. We just came up short towards the end."

Having lost 11-0 to Oklahoma the night before, Harvard was knocked out of the double-elimination NCAA Regional Tournament. The softball players--who had been forced to take scheduled finals and study for upcoming finals throughout the course of the tournament--returned home Saturday evening.

The major turning point of the game came in the bottom of the fifth at the hands of the umpiring crew.

With runners at first and third and one out, Northwestern's Tami Jones hit a shallow fly ball to left. Freshman Tiffany Whitton made a great catch, running in, scooping the ball up just inches off the ground.

Erin Jancic, the Wildcat baserunner at third, had jumped off third base before the ball was caught. She ran home anyway, beating Whitton's throw to the plate. Senior third baseman Crystal Springer, who had been standing right on third base at the time, was certain that Jancic never tagged. Junior pitcher Chelsea Thoke tossed the ball to Springer who tagged third, and the umpire flashed the out sign. The Crimson defense walked off of the field, apparently out of the inning.

But the accuracy of the umpires was no match for the intimidation of the Northwestern bench. The Wildcat players and coaches were positive that Jancic had tagged, and a lengthy discussion ensued. After a 15-minute delay, play resumed, but with the Crimson defense back on the field, a Wildcat runner at second and an undeserved Wildcat run across the plate.

Northwestern wasn't finished cashing in on its extra out. The next Wildcat batter slapped an RBI single up the middle to tie the game, 6-6.

In the bottom of the sixth, a double and a Crimson error put Harvard in a second-and-third, no-out jam. Wildcat Brett Nakabayashi hit a sacrifice fly to left to give Northwestern its first lead of the day.

The Harvard defense fell apart from there. With a runner at third and one out, the Crimson psyched out Wildcat Rane Gunderson at third and caught her in a rundown. When the ball made its way to Springer, she chose to chase the runner home. Upon realizing that Gunderson was a bit faster than she expected, Springer threw the ball to junior Mairead McKendry at home, but the throw merely ricocheted off of McKendry's face, and Gunderson scored.

Northwestern would put another run across on a throwing error by co-captain Deborah Abeles. The Crimson bats silently went down one-two-three to close out the game. There was no magic left after the demoralizing events of the previous two innings.

It was a bitter ending to a game that had begun so promisingly.

"We came out very strong and ready to play," Allard said. "I was happy to see them swing their bats very aggressively."

Whitton and Godfree set the tone for Harvard's hitting that day. Whitton drove the second pitch of the game over the head of the Wildcat left fielder, and Godfree followed with a single up the middle. The Crimson was unable to capitalize, but it was the beginning the team needed after such a terrible loss the night before.

Whitton was also the Crimson starting pitcher. As in her previous two starts, she managed to pitch herself into a difficult situation by walking a pair of batters, and then find a way to escape fairly unscathed. With the bases loaded and two outs, she got Northwestern's Jenn Shull to pop out to McKendry.

In the top of the third, Harvard finally got on the scoreboard, albeit in the most unlikely fashion. Senior Jessie Amberg led off the inning by sending a 2-2 pitch over the right field fence, her first career home run in what would be the last game of her college career.

In fact, it was her first home run since she led her fourth-grade team to an 18-6 victory with an eight-RBI performance back in 1989.

"It felt really good," Amberg said. "I definitely was surprised, though probably not as surprised as my parents or my teammates."

Whitton followed up Amberg's surprise with a round-tripper of her own, a towering fly ball over the left-center fence. It was Whitton's third home run of the year, and the second time Harvard had hit back-to-back home runs this season. McKendry and sophomore Sarah Koppel accomplished the feat in a 10-5 win over Penn in April.

Harvard would add two more runs in the inning to knock Northwestern starter Brie Brown out of the game. After Brown hit Godfree and forced Abeles to pop out, McKendry, Koppel and freshman Monica Montijo hit consecutive singles to put Harvard up 4-0. Springer walked to load the bases with one out, but Harvard was unable to get any more runs across.

Such missed opportunities haunted the Crimson throughout the day. In the next inning, Harvard once again loaded the bases with two outs. Montijo appeared to deliver with a single to right field, but in the near-sighted eyes of the umpires, the throw from the Wildcat right fielder beat Montijo's dive into first.

Although Whitton struggled in the bottom of the third and Northwestern managed to tie the game, 4-4, she put the Crimson back up 6-4 with a two-run double in the top of the fifth. Springer started the inning with a well-earned walked, and Thoke, who had relieved Whitton on the mound in the third, followed with a well-placed pop-bunt single. Amberg, the next hitter, fouled off five pitches before finally getting the ball in play. Northwestern booted the ball, and that set up Whitton's big hit.

But then Wildcat freshman ace Lauren Schwendimann, who relieved Brown in the third, pitched her way out of the second-and-third, no-out jam. She retired Godfree, Abeles and McKendry in a row to escape without Harvard building a substantial lead.

It was the fourth time in the first five innings that the Crimson had left runners at second and third. As great as the Harvard bats were on the day, they were unable to drive Whitton home on either of her doubles, even though both came with nobody out. The final missed opportunity in the fifth set up the game's disastrous conclusion.

Abeles--this year's Ivy League Player of the Year--deserved a much better ending to her career than what she had to experience. Hampered by a broken wrist throughout the past month, she was hitless in five at-bats and made two errors in the two NCAA Regional games.

"Deborah's had trouble coming through, both hitting and throwing," Allard said. "We've just kind of worked with [the injury], taped it up. She's a trooper for playing with it. She's a great leader."

Abeles managed to play through the pain whenever she felt that she could make a difference.

"We're very proud of her putting up with all she's put up with over the last four years," Amberg. "She's been injured an unbelievable amount, and played incredibly hard regardless."

The success that Abeles has had in her career will be difficult for anyone to match. A career .378 hitter, she owns the Harvard records for career hits, home runs and RBI.

More importantly, she led Harvard to its first two Ivy championships ever. In 1998, the first championship season, she set the Harvard single-season records in hits, home runs and RBI, while leading Harvard to a perfect 12-0 Ivy record.

This season, she hit the game-winning solo shot in an Ivy-opening 1-0 win over Cornell that completely turned around Harvard's season. In Ivy play, she led the team in slugging and on-base percentage, leading the team to an 11-1 league record and its second championship in three years.

While Harvard's performance at the NCAA Regionals may not have been all the players had hoped for, the Crimson will have every opportunity to make it back next season. With Ivy second-teamer Cherry Fu and six all-Ivy players--McKendry, Thoke, Koppel, Whitton, Montijo and sophomore pitcher Suzanne Guy--returning, the Crimson should be capable of winning Ivy championships for years to come.