Lantz’s hit in the eighth gave Harvard the 7-6 lead, but the Aztecs answered the call with a two-RBI double to earn them the walk off 8-7 win.
“SDSU is suppose to be a really competitive team and we were able to tie it up and go into extra innings,” Rich said. “It was great to see the team come together at the end of the game and put up a fight.”
COLORADO STATE 6, HARVARD 1
Lantz again stood out in the Harvard offense, driving in the lone run of the game with her first career triple in the sixth inning. Lantz’ contribution, although, was too little, too late to catch up to the 6-0 lead Colorado State had already built up.
Colorado State capitalized on a combination of passed balls and wild pitches to score its first three runs. CSU recorded one run in the first and four in the second to set up an early 5-0 lead. A Rams RBI single in the fifth rounded out Colorado State’s runs and secured them the contest even with Lantz’s RBI in the sixth.
ST. MARY’S 9, HARVARD 8
Harvard forced its second extra innings game of the tournament when Davis hit a homerun in the bottom of the seventh to tie up the score.
The Crimson bounced back from a low scoring offense against Colorado State to take an early 4-0 lead in the first against St. Mary’s. Junior Giana Panariello drove in Harvard’s first run with a double to the left that plated Rich. An infield RBI single by Bradley then brought home another Crimson to make it a 2-0 game. Leslie batted two-RBI single to bring both Panariello and Bradley home to score giving Harvard a promising, early lead.
St. Mary’s scored two runs in the top of the second to cut the deficit in half. The Crimson answered in the third extending their lead by three more runs. The Gaels rallied over the next three innings to score five runs. Harvard added two more to their score to end the seventh tied at 7-7.
St. Mary’s continued their scoring streak, sending two batters home in the top of the eighth. Lantz scored a double to drive home Rich, but the Crimson failed to tally another to match the Gaels.
“Even though the games in San Diego didn’t always fall in our favor, I think that it taught us a lot and gave us some good weapons going forward and where to improve and where to kick off with,” Galindo said.
—Staff writer Ginny Miller can be reached at virginiamiller@college.harvard.edu.