Baseball Varsity Entertains Navy In Crucial Home Game

If you can only manage to get to a couple of Harvard baseball games a year, today's clash with Navy should definitely be one of them. It's very possible that the Eastern League champion could be decided this afternoon.

Navy, the defending champion, comes to Cambridge with a pretty impressive club. They are 6-1 for the year, and their team batting average of .291 indicates they have a fairly explosive line-up. Team fielding and pitching aren't quite as remarkable, but Navy apparently believes, as do the Yankees, that sheer brute force can go a long way.

The man attempting to silence the Navy guns will probably be sophomore Paul Del Rossi (4-0). A 6 ft. southpaw with good speed and a tricky change-up, he has been one of the big factors in the Crimson's surprising 9-1 team record to date. Del Rossi has completed three of his four starts and currently is working with a 0.82 earned run average, pretty good in any league.

Today will undoubtedly be Del Rossi's toughest assignment, however. Look at some of the Middle batting averages: Hank Kettelhodt, the first sacker, is going at .393; left fielder Bob Foyle and shortstop Chuck Garroway will check in with stick marks of .371; catcher Harvey Cybul is .348; right fielder Pat Roney is currently .316 with two doubles and a home run.

As Crimson captain Dave Morse points out, every team is throwing its best pitcher at the Harvard club these days, and Navy should go with either Bruce Terwilliger (3-0) or Bruce Ginkle (2-0). Ginkle is a fast ball artist with 17 strike-outs to his credit, but he is also supporting a 4.45 ERA. Terwilliger hasn't worked nearly as much, but his ERA is a little high at 4.15.

People usually complain about the level of college play, but this year's Crimson has some pretty slick ball-players. Shortstop Morse, for instance, is a good pro ball prospect.

Although maybe a bit small for the big time, hot corner man Mike Drummey is certainly a top man in the college league.

There are others, and you'll hear about them as the season progresses. Today will be a good time to see them work. The weather should be nice, too.