Joe O'Donnell slugged a home run in the top of the twelfth inning Saturday afternoon to lift Harvard to an 8-7 victory over Columbia and give the Crimson a split in a doubleheader that started in New Jersey and ended in New York. That morning, Harvard was throttled 8-0 by Princeton in a replay of a game that been scheduled for Friday but was postponed because of wet grounds.

the Columbia game, the Crimson quickly gave starter Larry Melfa a lead, scoring two runs off Lion pitcher Dave Hillis in the second and him out of the box with three more in the third.

But Columbia raked Malfa for four runs in the bottom of the third, three of them on a home run by football star Archie Roberts, and tied the game in the with another score. Harvard regained the lead with a pair of runs in the top the fifth, but the Lions knotted the score again in the bottom of the same inning. reliever Kent Mitchell for two runs.

In the top of the sixth, Columbia brought on star righthander Nell Farber, who had already gone nine innings that morning to beat Brown 7-1. Jim McCandlish relieved Mitchell in the sixth for Harvard, and he and Farber each pitched shutout ball until O'Donnell's homer broke the deadlock in the twelfth.

The loss was Columbia's first in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League against three victories and also the first for Farber, who has won five of Columbia's nine season victories. McCandlish picked up his second victory in relief for the Crimson.

Four Hitter

In the early game at Princeton, Tiger righthander Graham Marcott went all the way, shutting the Crimson out on a baro four hits. Princeton buffetted three Harvard pitchers for eleven hits, with Marcott contributing two himself along with two RBI's.

Harvard's overall record is now 4-8, and 2-2 in league competition. The defeat at Princeton may have fatally damaged the erratic Crimson nine's chances to repeat as EIBL champions.