Harvard is shut out -- and bounced out

Shelly Madick lowered her ERA to 1.50 and allowed just three hits. It wasn't enough to keep Harvard's softball season going.

Amber Maisonet drove in the game's only run yesterday with a fifth-inning single and made an outstanding defensive play to end Harvard's last-inning rally as Albany prevailed, 1-0, in Hempstead, N.Y., eliminating the Crimson (31-15) from the NCAA Division 1 tournament.

Albany went on to beat Hofstra, 4-2, and advanced to meet Baylor for the regional title today.

With one out in the seventh, Stephanie Krysiak and Lauren Brown reached on hard-hit balls that Albany infielders couldn't handle. Belmont's Julia Kidder (two hits in her previous three at-bats) hit a low liner to left field that the hard-charging Maisonet caught while on one knee before she threw to second to double off Krysiak and end the game.

The Crimson put runners on base in all but one inning, but Leah McIntosh stranded eight and escaped a bases-loaded jam.

Madick (16-6), a junior, finished the season with the fifth-lowest ERA in Harvard history.

NCAA Division 3 -- Rhode Island College (41-7) was routed by Plattsburgh State, 10-3, in Salem, Va., and eliminated from the tournament.

NCAA Division 2 -- Franklin Pierce will play Bryant today for the Northeast Regional championship, and will need to win just one of two games. The top-seeded Ravens advanced with a 7-2 victory over second-seeded Adelphi in Rindge, N.H. Bryant (35-23), down to its last out before rallying for a 3-2, 10-inning victory that eliminated Caldwell earlier in the day, got a complete-game four-hitter from Brent Almeida last night in a 10-0 dismissal of Adelphi. Franklin Pierce (48-9) reached the championship round in the regional for the third straight year and will be shooting for its second trip in as many years to the Division 2 College World Series. Norwood's Andrew McNulty (4-1), making his first start since March 22, worked 5 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits, with five strikeouts and two walks for the Ravens.

NCAA Division 3 -- Randy Re robbed Beau Darak of a homer with a great catch and belted a two-run home run as Eastern Connecticut advanced to the championship of the New England Regional in Harwich with a 6-1 victory over Keene State, which will need to beat the Warriors twice today to win the title. Keene State beat Wheaton, 4-1, last night in an elimination game. Earlier, Wheaton eliminated Williams, 7-1, behind Josh Moore's school-record 16 strikeouts.

NCAA Division 1 -- In Princeton, N.J., John Glynn scored with 4.8 seconds remaining in overtime to propel No. 1 Cornell to the semifinals with a 12-11 victory over Albany. Cornell (15-0) will meet the winner of today's Duke-North Carolina game Saturday in Baltimore . . . Kevin Huntley scored five goals as Johns Hopkins (11-4) rolled to a 14-6 win over Georgetown. The Blue Jays will face the winner of today's UMBC-Delaware game.

NCAA Division 1 -- Meredith Frank, a sophomore from Westwood, scored four goals as host Northwestern earned its third straight trip to the NCAA semifinals with a 14-9 win over Syracuse. The top-ranked Wildcats (19-1), seeking their third straight national title, will play Penn Friday in Philadelphia before Virginia takes on Duke.

NCAA Division 3 -- Robyn Bishop scored with 33 seconds remaining to lift Salisbury to the 8-7 victory over Middlebury in a semifinal in Geneva, N.Y.