Crimson Nine Destroys Elis, 14-1; Del Rossi, Diehl, Gilmor Stand Out

Yesterday afternoon was rather amazing. In the first place, more than 7000 people actually went down to Kindle-stick Park to watch the Harvard-Yale baseball game. Secondly, in the middle of June these hearty alumni were subjected to near arctic weather that would have driven a sensible polar bear into hibernation. Third, Paul Del Rossi struck out seven in a row but nearly found himself en route to the shower room for wildness. The band was in tune.

Harvard's victory in the game was not totally surprising, but the 14-1 score was truly extraordinaire. Not even in the most devilish dreams could Harvard fans have imagined the Blue would be dragged so low.

The Yalies asked for it though, when they declined to use their best pitcher, Bob Kelly. Instead of their ace, the Ellis started Randy Egloff, a junior who displayed sinister intentions by striking out two in the first inning, but lacked the skill to last long against the Harvard artillery.

He was folowed by a nondescript procession of lefties, all of them as earnest and inept as the starter. Together they were charged with 14 runs, 12 hits, and six walks. Egloff, the beginner in the series, was also the loser.

Contrasting nicely to these gentlemen was Paul Del Rossi, who gained his eighth win of the year against a single defeat. Del Rossi permitted but six hits and struck out 13 Blue-capped foes with a tantalizing smorgasbord of curves, change-ups and good old fast balls.

His brilliance, however, was occasionally surrounded by a shroud of wildness. Twice in the first three innings he was in serious trouble, despite the fact that he struck out seven in a row during that interval. The difficulty reached a peak in the third when the junior left-hander walked in the only Yale run of the fray.

After that, however, Del Rossi efficiently scattered the few Eli hits of the day, preventing any serious assault on Harvard's continually increasing advantage on the scoreboard.

Little Gavin Gilmor proved to be a particularly insoluable problem for the Bulldogs. Twice he directed sharp line-drives down the right field line to the ivy roots around the football stadium for home runs.

Catcher Dick Diehl had an equally admirable afternoon, delighting reunioners with three hits that drove in four runs. One of Diehl's feats, a prodigious drive beyond the grasp of the respectfully distant outfielders, would surely have been a homerun in any field with a fence. At Splinter Stadium, though, with its uncontained outfield pasture, the outfielders had time to rescue the ball before the massive catcher could make the turn at third, thus holding him to a triple.

Pitcher Del Rossi also tripled, bringing in two runs in the second inning that proved to be more than enough insurance for the victory. His blast was quickly duplicated by Curly Combs, who so startled left-fielded Hugh Levick that he fell on the slippery outfield grass while chasing the ball.

Harvard's four-run second inning deeply discouraged the New Haven visitors. The two runs that followed, as a result of Diehl's triple in the third, made the inevitible seem obvious.

Few were in doubt of the outcome (and in fact, few were left in the chilly park) by the time that Gilmor contributed two more runs to the festivities in the fifth with his homer. Only the truly brave and faithful remained when sophomore Mike Patrick tripled in one run in the eighth and scored on Diehl's shot to deep second.

By the ninth Yale seemed to have finally given up. Closely resembling the pattern made famous by the New York Mets, the Bulldog infield made two errors on one play, an achievement which produced two more Crimson runs. Gilmor concluded the day's point making in a more orthodox fashion, placing his second home run past the range of Eli right fielder John Hunsaker.