To kick off the season, the Harvard softball team traveled to the great Midwest for a spell.

Unfortunately, the friendly, laid-back nature of Cape Girardeau, Mo. belied the intense competition that awaited the Crimson (1-2).

In three games at the Southeast Softball Classic, the Crimson emerged with one victory and two losses.

During Sunday's tripleheader, the Crimson dropped a contest to Southwest Missouri State (10-4), defeated Northern Iowa (3-2) and lost to host Southeast Missouri State (1-3).

Southwest Mo. 1, Harvard 0

The Crimson rose bright and early for the 10 a.m. opener against the Lady Bears.

In the first inning, Harvard stranded sophomore shortstop Deborah Abeles on first after she got on board with a single.

The bottom half of the inning yielded the Lady Bears a hit off Crimson sophomore pitcher Chelsea Thoke.

Senior catcher Terri Teller lined a single to right center field in the second, but again the Crimson couldn't bring home a run.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Lady Bears got on the scoreboard for what would prove to be the winning margin.

Junior Tawnya Grout singled to left for Southwest Missouri. After a pinch runner was substituted for Grout, the Lady Bears managed to bring her home, for the go-ahead run.

The Harvard fifth turned out to be the best chance for the Crimson to score.

Freshman outfielder Sarah Koppel singled to the pitcher, but was thrown out on the next play-a fielder's choice that got junior first baseman Ghia Godfree on base.

After junior outfielder Jessie Amberg singled to move Godfree over to second, Coach Jenny Allard substituted senior outfielder Karen Rice for Godfree.

With runners on first and second, senior third baseman Meredith Bagley laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both Rice and Amberg. The Lady Bears then walked second baseman Tara LaSovage.

With the bases loaded, Rice was picked off third by the catcher to end the inning.

The Crimson could not recover a run in the sixth inning, and the game ended because the Lady Bears did not need their final at bat.

Thoke pitched a fairly clean game for the Crimson, despite the loss. She recorded six hits, one run, one earned run, no walks and five strikeouts in five innings.

The Crimson managed five hits on Southwest Missouri's Jessica Davis and Nora Cagwin.

Harvard 1, Northern Iowa 0

Harvard turned it around just a few hours later against Northern Iowa.

While the Crimson and the Panthers couldn't make much of the first two innings, the Crimson tallied in the third.

Panther pitcher Melissa Navntoft hit Amberg to open the inning. Bagley then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Amberg to second.

LaSovage singled to second to score Amberg and give the Crimson the game's only run.

After another sacrifice bunt, LaSovage advanced to second. She then took third on a single by Abeles, but was thrown out when she tried for home.

Neither team could score another run for the rest of the game.

LaSovage and Teller both finished the game with two hits, while LaSovage added a RBI.

Crimson freshman pitcher Suzanne Guy pitched four innings and allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out two batters.

Freshman Julie Schwab relieved Guy and allowed no runs or hits in three innings.

Harvard ended the game with seven hits off of Navntoft.

Southeast Mo. 5, Harvard 1

To finish off the long day of action, Harvard faced host Southeast Missouri State, only to drop the contest.

Thoke, who was on the mound for the Crimson, walked Ricki DeArmon to start the game. A sacrifice bunt and a single to center later, DeArmon scored.

There was no scoring again until the fourth inning when Southeast Missouri scored senior infielder Jenny Oermann on a double by junior outfielder Kelsey White.

Southeast Missouri managed another run in the sixth and two more in the top of the seventh.

The Crimson, down 5-0, started a two-out rally when Teller singled to third. Koppel singled to right field and scored Teller.

The Crimson got another runner on base, but stranded two when the final out was recorded.

The Crimson managed just three hits against Southeast Missouri's Christine Engelhardt, who struck out five Crimson batters.

Thoke, who was on the mound for the Crimson for the second time of the day, pitched seven innings and struck out nine, but gave up six hits and three earned runs.

The Crimson's next contest will be in a tournament at Cal State-Hayward on March 26.