CHESTNUT HILL--On days like yesterday, two things about the game of softball become very clear.

First: one contest could, theoretically, last forever.

Second: that's a pretty miserable prospect.

Under a chilly, misting rain at Boston College, the Harvard softball team clashed with the Eagles in a game that threatened to go on and on and on...

"It was the kind of game where whoever got the big hit was going to win," Crimson Coach John Wentzell said. "We always fell one hit short, and so did they--until the last inning."

When B.C.'s Maria Montuori finally crossed the plate to give the hosts a 3-2 victory, she snapped nine innings of anticipation.

Anticipation--and a bit of morbid curiosity on both sides as to which pitcher would crack first.

The players in the drama were Harvard's rising freshman star Lora Rowning and Eagle sophomore Lesley Lane.

And for nine innings, under the lights and under the shadow of the B.C. football stadium, each hurler did a stellar job of keeping the opponent at bay.

Yesterday's contest was the first extra-inning venture of the year for the Crimson (now 4-2), and served as a potential showcase for the latest version of one of the NCAA's wackier regulations.

Some softball fans may recall last year's debut of the "place a runner on second base at the start of every extra inning" rule. In other words, starting in the eighth inning, the team at bat begins each frame with a bonus runner sitting on second--a plan designed to facilitate scoring and shorten lengthy deadlocks.

The latest fun twist allows both squads to play out the eighth and ninth frames "normally," only introducing the freebie runners in the tenth.

But in the end, the tenth never came.

In the end, those crazy rule-begotten runners never got a chance to appear.

Because in the end, Montuori scored from second on a kelly Davenport single to right, crossing the plate just ahead of Harvard second baseman Mary Baldauf's desperation throw.