No more playing the name game is how No. 6 Arizona plans to approach the next two days of the Tucson Regional after a scare from Harvard early on in the first game of tournament for both teams.

The Crimson took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning with a home run from Erin Lockhart stunning the home crowd at Rita Hillenbrand Stadium. The run was eventually the only one Harvard would score all game.

UA was having no issue making contact throughout the game but it took until the bottom of the sixth before the Wildcats could take their first lead of the game.

Arizona used a base hit from Hannah Martinez to bring home Hanah Bowen from second base to go up 2-1. The Wildcats had three more base hits before the end of the inning bringing in three more runs to give Arizona a 5-1 victory.

“Harvard is a very feisty team,” head coach Mike Candrea said. “I was very impressed with the way they came out and I keep saying all the time that there is so much parody around this country that that’s the way it is. If a team makes it to post season they deserve to be here and they’re going to compete. I think that a lesson for everyone to learn. You can’t play the name game anymore because there’s a lot of kids that can play this game.

“… I thought they threw some punches early and kind of kept punching, but I thought that there were some situations we could have broken it open that we just couldn’t get a key hit until Peanut [Martinez] tied the game up.”

Senior pitcher Taylor McQuillin was on top of her game Friday night after the early mistake to Lockhart and a couple of errors in the field during the second inning. After those miscues she found her rhythm in the circle eventually striking out eight batters before the end of the night giving her team a chance to win.

“For me it’s not how you start it’s how you finish and I think for me the most important thing was to come back strong, trust my defense,” she said. “Obviously the first couple of innings were a bit rough, couldn’t really find the zone, had some walks, had some hard hits, so it was just really coming back strong but I have faith in my team to get on, get hits, score some runs.”

“For me I knew it was only a matter of time. My teams’ always got my back.”

Martinez not only gave Arizona the go-ahead run but she singled to left field in the fourth to tie the game 1-1 giving the Wildcats some momentum after a slow start. She finished the game 2 for 3 with two RBIs and a run scored.

Candrea was also impressed with Bowen’s performance in Friday night’s game. She eventually scored the game-winning run after hitting a double to right center finishing her night 2 for 3.

“I thought Bowen’s double was huge,” he said. “I thought Bowen saw the ball well and was very patient, got some good pitches to hit. I thought at times we were very impatient. We let the umpire expand our hitting zone and in those situation you can’t. It’s hard, with two strikes I can see it happening, but when you’re ahead in the count you’ve gotta shrink the zone and get pitches you can drive.”

Saturday afternoon the Wildcats will face No. 24 Auburn at 3 p.m. in the winners’ bracket after the Tigers beat Colorado State in the first game Friday.