Crimson to Face Lions, Huskies

The varsity baseball team is better than both the squads it plays this weekend, but the team may not be able to win both games. The combination of travelling all weekend and facing two strong pitchers may prove too much for the Crimson.

In today's game with Columbia, Harvard will probably face Neil Farber, one of the best pitchers in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League. Farber has given up two earned runs in 27 innings and has won all three of his starts.

But the Lions will be facing an even stronger pitcher in Paul Del Rossi, who has won all four of his games this year. Del Rossi throttled Navy's powerful batsmen in his last outing and shouldn't have trouble with the Lions, who have scored few runs this spring. In fact last week the Columbia team was beaten on a no-hitter by Fordham's Gerry Mackin.

After playing Columbia the Crimson will fly back to Boston tonight and drive to Brookline Saturday to face a Northeastern team that has won all three of its games and a pitcher, Dick MacPherson, who hasn't given up a run this spring. MacPherson has been touched for only six hits in his eighteen innings of pitching. In his last start he blanked Tufts on a two-hitter, beating Miles Negelo in a pitchers' duel, 2-0, Del Rossi also outputted Nogelo when the Crimson played Tufts, but Del Rossi won't be pitching for Harvard Saturday.

Coach Norm Shepard isn't sure who is pitching Saturday. It might be Dick Garibaldi, but Dick just pitched against Springfield on Wednesday. Or it might be Bill Guzetti, who hasn't pitched in almost two weeks.

It would be dangerous to go either with a tired pitcher or with a stale one in Northeaster's tiny park. The left-field fence is about 250 feet from the plate and home runs are cheap. It should be a good opportunity for the Crimson's hitters to fatten up their averages if they can get a few hits off MacPherson.

The Huskies have some hitters of their own who can rattle the nearby fences. Left fielder Frank Schettino hits with power and is a superb fielder. Short-stop John Pierce led the team's hitters last year and is off to another good start.

Gavin Gilmor now leads the Crimson with a 432 batting average. Shortstop Tom Bilodeau is next at .371 and Terry Bartolet is at .340.