Hayes' Triple Sparks Batswomen; Crimson Rally Tops Maine, 7-6

Once again, the Harvard softball team refused to give up in the late innings.

The Crimson Comeback Crew trailed the University of Maine by three runs entering the bottom of the seventh yesterday at Soldiers Field, but rallied for a thrilling 7-6 victory. The squad's record now stands at 8-4, with 13 games left on the schedule.

Just as in Harvard's 4-3 comeback over Wheaton just over a week ago, it was freshman Sharon Hayes who delivered the death blow to the visitors. In the Wheaton contest, she smacked a home run in the seventh to win the game, and yesterday she came through under pressure to notch yet another game-winning RBI.

After Trisha Brown drove in the initial run in the final frame, Hayes crunched a triple to deep center, clearing the loaded bases.

Hayes' two-for-four day at the plate broke her out of a one-for-10 slump, while her four RBI brought her season total to nine.

The entire team went wild at the plate as well, combining for nine hits--five of them for extra bases.

"We've faced some good pitchers over the past few weeks," Crimson Coach John Wentzell said. "We haven't been overpowered.

Far from being overpowered, in fact, the batswomen have demonstrated an excellent mixture of offensive power and clutch ability Harvard has averaged five-and-a-half runs per game this season, and has come from behind in the final inning for three of its wins.

Add strong pitching to the offensive prowess, and you've got team good enough to upset Maine, softball powerhouse. Now 8-1 Maine had defeated Florida A & M, Holy Cross, Army, Indians, and Quinnipine.

But, despite touching up pitch Gerri Rubin for 13 hits, Maine couldn't manage to defeat the Crimson. Rubin picked up her sixth victory of the season after a bit of a workout--she threw 98 pitches over the course of the ballgame.

"Gerri is really the heart and so of this team," Wentzell said. "When she pitches the kids play over the heads."

Killer B's

Wentzell also credited his "Killer B's", otherwise known as the top of the Harvard lineup. Hitting in the first through the fourth spots are (Hanya) Bluestone, (Mary) Baldau (Gia) Barresi, and (Trisha) Brown.

"It's too bad Sharon's name isn't Bayes," Wentzell missed.

You can't have everything, and the performance of the Killer B's--plus one mismatched Hayes--was more than enough to satisfy Wentzell and spectators ahke.

The first five batters were responsible for eight of the nine Harvard hits, and each member of the 3-4-5 combo of Barresi, Brown, and Hayes had a pair of hits.

Comeback

Maine jumped out to a 3-0 lead to the third, on five consecutive singles of Ribin.

The Cantabs came right back in the bottom half of the third, as Barresi lined a two-run home run that skipped past Black Bear centerfielder Gina Omellette.

With a pair of runs in the fifth and a single tally in the sixth, however, Maine appeared to have the game in the bag, Lynn Hearty, the UM pitcher, gave up consecutive doubles in the sixth, to Brown and Hayes, but still took a comfortable three-run cushion with her to the mound in the seventh.

However, before anyone could quite realize what was happening, Bluestone and Baldauf had singled, Barren had reached on a bungled fielder's choice grounder, Brown had driven in one with her single, and Hayes had cleared the sacks with her shot.

After hasty calculations to make sure that that four runs had actually materialized to quality. Hayes was mobbed as she stood at third.

The Crimson hopes to repeat yesterday's success when it faces Tufts tomorrow--but perhaps without quite as much suspense. "I don't think they are quite the caliber of the other teams we've been facing," Wentzell predicted.