Miami, Fla. (March 11, 2006)- Manhattan held a 4-2 lead through four innings, but could not hold off the host school, falling 6-4 to Florida International today at University Park.
The Lady Jaspers took the lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly to center field by Kiera Fox, scoring Liz Strein who led off the inning with a walk.
Manhattan made it 3-0 in the third. Deirdre Langan drove in Strein from second with a single up the middle. Fox took advantage of a bobble by an FIU infielder and ran home for the second run of the inning.
The Golden Panthers' Sam Card cut the deficit to one in the top of the fourth with a grounder down the right field line, scoring senior Jennifer Powell and freshman Kim Rodriguez.
The Lady Jaspers took a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Kerry Cook reached on an overthrow to first base, allowing Tina Buyea to round third and score.
Card helped the Golden Panthers level the game at 4-4 in the top of the sixth. First she doubled to left field to score Powell all the way from first. She later scored herself when junior Deomni Murray beat out a grounder to the shortstop.
Tabitha Embry's solo shot in the top of the seventh, her first of the season, gave FIU a 5-4 advantage. A fielding error allowed pinch running sophomore Nina Dyer to score from third to cap the scoring and put the Golden Panthers up by two.
Manhattan will meet Harvard at 11:00 a.m. before taking place in the semifinals at either 4:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m.