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Softball Struggles in San Diego State Classic II

Harvard softball (9-10) wasn’t able to repeat earlier success in its second Californian tournament over spring break, dropping four out of five games in the San Diego State Classic II. The Crimson pulled out a win in its last game of the tournament against the University of San Diego after a weekend full close losses, two of which went into extra innings.

“Spring break was a long stretch having about 11 games in approximately ten days. It was a good experience, a good building trip,” captain Zoe Galindo said. “I think we had great success our first weekend in LA and then going down to San Diego for the second half of the trip for the last five games I think we really played some opponents that pushed our limits more and made us uncomfortable in certain situations.”

HARVARD 4, SAN DIEGO 1

The Crimson picked up its only win of the weekend in its final matchup against San Diego. The 4-1 victory over the Toreros Saturday afternoon ended a five game losing streak for Harvard and boosted its overall record in California to 5-6.

The scoreboard remained blank for both teams for the first three innings of the game until senior Haley Davis broke through in the top of the fourth with a home run to put Harvard up 1-0. The Crimson then notched three more runs in the sixth to secure a commanding 4-0 lead.

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Senior pitcher Morgan Groom kept USD scoreless for five innings, striking out six on the day. The Toreros were only able to record one run on a Harvard error after San Diego’s Mary Grabowski tripled. Freshman pitcher Kathleen Duncan came out to close out the game in the seventh, inducing three groundouts to secure the win.

BRIGHAM YOUNG 2, HARVARD 0

Brigham Young shutout the Crimson in its tournament opener on Thursday. Base runners were rare for Harvard, with the Cougars keeping the Crimson to only three hits on the game.

Harvard had an early chance to score in the second with a Haley Davis double and a Savannah Bradley single with only one out, but BYU struck the following two batters out to end the inning.

Duncan was solid in the circle allowing only two runs over eight hits, but a Cougar RBI double in the fourth and solo homer in the fifth was enough to secure a BYU lead and end the contest.

SAN DIEGO STATE 8, HARVARD 7

The Crimson forced eight innings after overcoming an earlier 4-2 deficit with five runs in the sixth inning, but was unable to bring home the win when San Diego State answered with two runs in bottom of the sixth and two runs in the eighth.

Freshman Meagan Lantz led the Harvard comeback with a grand slam, making up four of her five RBIs in the game. The first run was scored before Lantz’s dinger thanks to Junior Jillian Leslie’s RBI when she earned a walk with the bases loaded. Lantz notched her final RBI of the game at the top of the eighth with a single to drive Davis home.

“In the SDSU game and throughout California Meagan Lantz had a really great week. She really proved herself in different situations,” Galindo said. “When she hit a grand slam to get us back in the game it was really huge moment and it really fired everyone up.”

The Aztecs scored in its first three innings up to bat with one in the first, two in the second, and one in the third. Freshman Rhianna Rich started the initial drive to close the gap with a left field single in the third to score Harvard’s first run of the game.

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