Varsity Baseball Squad Victorious On Annual Spring Tour in Virginia

The Harvard baseball team won three of its four games on the spring trip to the South last week, and showed that it has a good chance for the Ivy League Pennant. The Varsityswept a two game series with Quantico, then split a double-header with the University of Richmond, winning the second game decisively, 5-0. Two games, with Georgetown and Maryland, were rained out.

The first game at Quantico, on March 31, was a marathon in time and innings. It took Harvard four hours, fifteen minutes, and thirteen innings to edge the Marines, 5 to 4, under the lights. This was the first time anyone on the Crimson team had played at night in a Harvard uniform.

Under clear, late afternoon skies with the temperatures in the 70's, Harvard went ahead when left fielder Charlie Ravenel lined a fast ball over the left field wall, 291 feet away, in the second inning. Quantico came back with a run on another four-bagger, and the score remained tied until the seventh. Captain and catcher John Davis then poled a home run over the right field wall, and the Crimson got a third score the following inning. With Harvard ahead by two with one inning remaining, there seemed little doubt as to the outcome.

But Wally Cook, who had come in to pitch extremely well for Harvard in the sixth, was the victim of bad luck when the marines got two unearned runs in the bottom of the ninth. The lights came on, and the game progressed until finally in the thirteenth Davis doubled, sending in A1 Martin with the winning run.

The victory was all the more encouraging since Harvard had been outside for batting practice only once before in all the weeks of tuning up. The pitching, which had been the team's one big worry, proved more than adequate with Byron Johnson, Cook, and Dave Kipp all doing well.

The next day Harvard quickly trimmed the Marines 7-4 for its second victory. Bob Shaunessy pitched the first three innings and gave up four runs, but EdWadsworth, an erratic pitcher last year, entered the game in the fourth and allowed the Marines only one hit for the rest of the contest. The Crimson had the pleasure of knocking Carl Hubbell, Jr., out of the box with three runs in the second frame and went on from there to pick up four more runs on four hits and eight Quantico errors. In these games the hits were well distributed among the players, and the pitching and fielding were both excellent for early season play.

The first game with the University of Richmond on April 2, was postponed till the next day because of more rain, and on the third, Harvard and Richmond squared off in a double-header of two seven inning games.

With Gerry Emmet out of action due to a sore arm, what little depth the pitching staff had was greatly depleted. In the opening game, the second line hurlers were not even able to hold Richmond to less than the seven runs the Crimson batters amassed.

Four of the Harvard scores came in the sixth inning on five hits, Davis' triple the most spectacular.

The final game was a race against darkness since it started at 5 p.m., and there were no lights in the stadium. Kipp, pitching for the second time that day and the third time on the trip, rose to the occasion and quickly dispatched the Richmond batters for four innings, allowing a single safety. Renner Johnston hurled the last three frames and gave the Crimson a shutout victory.

Harvard this time got all of its runs in the sixth, with the team batting around the order. Singles by Chet Boulris and Davis, an error, two walks, and a long triple by Ravenel accounted for five runs, more than enough to win handily.

In retrospect the team far surpassed expectations. The combined earned run average was a very respectable 3.08